Huntington’s Kitchen to continue food revolution

Ebenezer Medical Outreach  is a non-profit organization providing medical care for those who can’t afford it. They’ve decided one way to help make Huntington more healthy is to take over Jamie’s Kitchen and run it under the name Huntington’s Kitchen. The hope is to provide cooking classes for Huntington residents to continue the lessons on healthier eating.

Jill Moore is the kitchen manager. She jumped aboard the idea of healthier cooking and eating when Oliver came to town. She says it’s changed her life.

“The food revolution is a great concept and I feel very strong about it, because I myself have done it, I’ve really changed my lifestyle in the last six months and have seen a huge improvement,” Moore said.

Moore says that’s what made her want to be a part of Huntington’s kitchen.

Moore says they plan to reopen in mid-February and will offer 10-week cooking classes. She says they are asking participants to donate $10 a class to offset some of the cost of running the facility.

Moore says they are going to hold public events to involve more of the community.

“I think we’re just going to go about it with some different fund raising ideas, ways to get members of the community in to see what a nice space it is to know that, we’re not trying to make people look bad, we’re trying to help,” Moore said.

Yvonne Jones is the executive director at Ebenezer. She  thinks keeping the kitchen open will keep the momentum that the reality show created.

“I think that the show airing will naturally bring a lot of excitement to it, but by that time we will already be into a process of trying to educate people about healthy eating and healthy living and it’ll just become routine so to speak and people will just continue to come,” Jones said.

Moore says they hope the kitchen becomes a place that many people utilize to start a new lifestyle.

“I hope that it becomes a community center that changes people’s lives and people want to be here and they want to change their lives for the better, even if we can only touch a handful of people then we’ve met our goal because the goal is to get people to eat better,” Moore said.

The television show, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, is scheduled to air in March. Oliver chose Huntington for its location because the city was recently ranked as having the unhealthiest residents in the nation.