Community Kitchen serving up more than meals

The Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative (DWCC) is opening a new restaurant with a big purpose: fostering connection.

Good Hood Community Kitchen is designed to offer low-cost meals, bringing people together in the heart of the city – while also serving as a venue for DWCC’s various programs.

“We’re going to give you something good and underneath that is the message: because you have value,” said Alex Song, the kitchen’s creator and a community developer with the DWCC.

Song said the plan is to open the restaurant the first week of October – serving breakfast and lunch before pivoting to host DWCC’s evening programs.

The Collective brings people together to offer supports as they work through trauma – offering programming for adults and youth.

“One thing we found over the years is that our programming usually ends up around a dinner table,” Song said.

The aim, according to Song, is to keep food options as affordable as possible while keeping the space open.

“We want to provide better meals for the programming that we do, but also the larger community. Especially our neighbours with no fixed address,” Song explained.

“Where’s a place that they can have a coffee that they can pay for and afford?”

On Monday evening, Song hosted a soft launch for the business, inviting family, DWCC staff, and financial supporters to see the space in action.

Windsor City Councillor Renaldo Agostino attended, expressing his support.

“You talk about all the amazing things they’re doing in this community with people, with families, with friends. You can’t leave out that the food is absolutely stunning. Five stars,” he said.

Song, who has experience in Korean cuisine, will be doing most of the cooking himself. “This is why we did this. To have people sitting around, talking, over good food,” he said.