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Aimee Yurris

Yellowknife, NT

Aimee Yurris is from Yellowknife, NT. She is currently working on her master’s degree in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo, focusing her research on Northern food security. She has a diploma in Culinary Arts from NAIT and a degree in Indigenous Health from the University of Lethbridge. In 2022, Aimee received a #RisingYouth Community Service Grant to run a Youth & Elder Cooking Class in Yellowknife, and she is excited to continue leading this project through the Sprout Ideas Fellowship!

Youth & Elder Cooking Classes

My project included three main activities: Kitchen Talks, Apron Sewing Workshop, and Community Cookbook. I partnered with several local youth-serving organizations including Home Base YK, the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre, Communities Building Youth Futures, Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning, and the Foster Family Coalition of the NWT to implement a weekly (Wednesday evenings) cooking class for youth at the Yellowknife Youth Centre titled “Kitchen Talks” from October to December 2023. Kitchen Talks provided an opportunity for youth to gather at the Youth Centre Kitchen and engage in hands-on cooking activities, oftentimes including recipes that the youth expressed wanting to learn, cultural learning opportunities, and various guests from the community. My project specifically provided volunteer human resources and financial support to the Kitchen Talks collaboration, including providing honoraria for an Indigenous Elder to join as a guest cooking instructor to provide an opportunity for intergenerational and cultural connection for the youth. An average of 5 to 10 youth attended the program each week.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yellowknife-youth-publish-community-cookbook-1.7103766

About this Project

Communities Served

My project will involve and/or impact the following communities:

  • At risk youth & children
  • Senior citizens
  • Indigenous Peoples

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

When it comes to community impact projects, the UN has created 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These are the Sustainable Development Goals associated with my project.

  • SDG 2: Zero hunger
  • SDG 3: Good health and Well-being

How the project works

During the community engagement phase of this project, I learned that providing nice aprons for participants to wear at my July 2022 #RisingYouth cooking class was something that stood out to participants and gave them confidence and pride in the kitchen. Based in this feedback, I decided to run an Apron Sewing Workshop for youth in Yellowknife as an additional skill-building opportunity, for youth to learn how to make their very own custom apron. This workshop took place on December 5, 2023 at the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre. There were 7 youth participants who attended and sewed their own simple apron using a variety of fabrics to express their personalities. I was also inspired by the Sprout modules which encouraged brainstorming ideas for longer-term project sustainability to create a resource that would live beyond the end date of the Fellowship. Therefore, I decided to create a Fall 2023 Community Cookbook that compiles recipes from Kitchen Talks and from local youth-serving organizations. The 48-page cookbook includes 12 recipes made at Kitchen Talks from October to December 2023, 6 favorite Fall recipes submitted by local youth-serving organizations, photos from Kitchen Talks, the Apron Sewing Workshop, and other youth events held by community partners during Fall 2023, and features 6 guests from the community (for example, a local dietician, caterer, Indigenous Elder, etc.) who joined us for Kitchen Talks during Fall 2023. A total of 59 copies of the cookbook were able to be printed using my Sprout budget which are being distributed for free to local youth through the Home Base Youth Centre and Tree of Peace Friendship Centre.

Project Impact

By partnering with other organizations in the community, we were able to achieve a total of 12 weekly Kitchen Talks cooking classes between October and December 2023, with an average of 5 to 10 participants per week. 6 different guests joined the Kitchen Talks, including local a local chef, dietician, and Elder. Honoraria was provided for an Indigenous Elder to join Kitchen Talks twice, to provide an opportunity for intergenerational connection and knowledge transfer for the youth participants. A total of 12 community partners participated in bringing Kitchen Talks, the Youth Apron Sewing Workshop, and the Community Cookbook to life. 7 youth participants learned sewing skills at the apron workshop, each making their very own apron. Qualitative feedback was collected from youth participants at Kitchen Talks in the form of a short written-answer survey. Some highlights of things that youth learned at Kitchen Talks include cooking skills, learning new recipes, and learning how to cook different cultural meals. Several respondents expressed that their favorite thing about Kitchen Talks was getting to make food. Several respondents also expressed that they are looking forward to learning more baking skills at future Kitchen Talks. Altogether, by offering weekly Kitchen Talks cooking classes, this project was able to achieve increased opportunities for youth in Yellowknife to learn cooking skills, connect with one another, and connect with other community members who shared their cultural knowledge including Elders. By offering a Youth Apron Sewing Workshop, this project was able to achieve another opportunity for youth to learn the skill of sewing, which also provided another opportunity for youth to connect with one another and create an apron that they could proudly wear in the kitchen. Lastly, by creating the Fall 2023 Community Cookbook, this project was able to achieve a free resource for youth that represents their learning journey and that they can refer to in the future, and achieve the involvement of community partners connecting over a shared goal of serving youth in Yellowknife and celebrating cooking and food as a means of connection. My previous #RisingYouth project was a one-time cooking class, so this project went above and beyond that by involving community partners to offer more sustainable cooking programming, and incorporating new project elements such as the Apron Making Workshop and Cookbook.

Project Mission

This project aims to provide a space for cooking skill development and intergenerational connections between Elders and Youth through food.

Project Team

This project is led by fellow Aimee Yurris and supported by community reference Christina Moore.

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