From 4:00 – 5:30 every Tuesday, delicious smells start to take over Beach Kitchen as kids aged 9 and up join volunteers to cook a different recipe each week, Recipes can be anything from homemade fish sticks to brownies, which they can then share with their families.

For kids like Sebastian, cooking with volunteers and other kids helps to provide a distraction and the support of friends when his little brother is in the hospital, receiving treatments or recovering from surgery.

Regular volunteer Anna-Victoria is working toward a teaching career and jumped at the chance to help launch the program and help kids learn new things. What keeps her coming back is the feeling of making a difference: “making the kids happy and helping them to enjoy their day.”

Her favourite recipe that she has cooked with the kids at RMH BC? Zucchini brownies! “The kids thought it was so odd and didn’t believe it could work, but they were amazed at how they turned out.”