VMC Library opened with a unique opportunity to expand what a library can be to a community. VMC stands for “Vaughan Metropolitan Centre” – a planned downtown in development around three co-located transit hubs – a subway, a local and regional bus station, and a regional rapidway. VMC Library is co-located with a YMCA and a city-run event space, and part of that event space is a kitchen suitable for teaching. VPL’s vision for culinary literacy includes opportunities beyond basic library programming, so Cooking Connections was developed – a cooking-based corporate team-building session suitable for companies, departments, and other organizations looking to cultivate social capital amongst their members. At the same time, participants would get a glimpse of the modern library, expanding understanding of what the public library is and what it can do within the community.

Cooking Connections offers four culinary activities around which team-building is based, all of which are complicated (or perceived to be) and can be intimidating to the average home cook. The four activities are sushi-making, dumplings from scratch, cream puffs and eclairs, and baking a wide variety of different cookies. The kitchen is set up with four tables, which can accommodate up to five people each. Each table works together to create their culinary masterpiece, which can then be shared with the wider group. VPL’s Culinary Literacy Specialist spent several months developing and designing the sessions, using timings from library programs to target topics that were complicated enough without the likelihood of running over the allotted time. VPL’s Public Service Team attended the first Cooking Connections session as an internal trial run. It was both delicious and enlightening! Marketing created a postcard promoting the service and feature it periodically in the newsletter.

VPL has hosted four Cooking Connections workshops for outside clients, with a total attendance of 54. Clients range from a nearby library system to the provincial chapter of a professional society to an agency that represents not-for-profit seniors’ care organizations across the province. Every client is an opportunity for the library to expand its network of contacts and organizations across the community, as well as a chance to cultivate a relationship with potential library users. Staff who attended a team-building workshop have later returned for culinary programs. And customers who attended culinary programs have encouraged their organizations to book team-building workshops. And as offerings and opportunities continue to develop, these synergies will continue to grow. As one of our clients said, “The entire team had an incredible time and we left the event having achieved our intended goals: to bond, to break from our day-to-day by engaging in something fun, and to learn…”