by Ayoola White
It is a common stereotype that librarians are loath to allow patrons to bring even the smallest morsels of sustenance into library spaces. What does it mean, then, when a public library begins offering cooking classes? This is a question that is relevant to the case of the Free Library of Philadelphia (FLP), which opened its Culinary Literacy Center (CLC) in the summer of 2014. The mission of the CLC is to encourage social and intellectual enrichment through the preparing of meals. In fact, the creators of the CLC pride themselves on being able to “teach math via measuring, reading via recipes, and science via seeing what pops out at the end of the cooking process.” A hybrid kitchen-classroom, the CLC is the first public library project of its kind in the United States.
The inspiration for this project came directly from the top. FLP director Siobhan A. Reardon conceptualized the CLC as a way of engaging tactile learning, social learning, and overall literacy. It is evident that her philosophy for the overall management of the library promotes flexibility and fun. Consequently, it is no wonder that she came up with such a captivating idea that has resonated with multiple sectors of the local population.
Who is the audience for this ambitious project? The specific people targeted as participants stem from the primary stakeholders identified in the FLP’s strategic plan: “job seekers, entrepreneurs, new Americans, children under five, and people with disabilities.” The FLP began prioritizing these specific subsets as a result of a new intention “to stop trying to be all things to all people.” This prioritization is reflected in the types of cooking classes offered: “Cooking with Confidence,”a class meant to instill basic cooking and independent living skills in individuals with developmental disabilities; “Edible Alphabet,”an opportunity for foreign-born patrons to practice their English; and “Nourishing Literacy,” an outlet for K-12 students to practice their school curricula through the culinary arts, are just a few examples. Aside from these recurring classes, the CLC offers more than 350 cooking courses per year. A particularly impressive offering is the yearly conference for recipients of SNAP benefits, which provides resources and guidance to low-income Philadelphia residents.
In addition to educating the public, the folks at the CLC also teach other public libraries how to create food-related programs. Their publication “Culinary Literacy: A Toolkit for Public Libraries” is a step-by-step guide for incorporating food-related programming in a library setting. It outlines the foundational ideas behind the CLC, as well as strategies for convincing higher-ups to support similar projects. An especially helpful portion of this publication is the section that describes the bare minimum materials that are needed for a food literacy program. After all, not all public libraries have the resources to construct a state-of-the-art kitchen on their premises. Nevertheless, they can still benefit from a bare bones setup.
All in all, the CLC is just one example of the innovation necessary to keep libraries relevant. In a world where people assume that Google supplants libraries and that libraries are simply warehouses of books, creativity is key. As father of library science S.R. Ranganathan stated in his Five Laws of Library Science, “the library is a growing organism.” As the needs of the public change, the library itself must change to meet them.