Campus Brome-Missisquoi’s (CBM) Adult Education Centre is celebrating the re-launch of its Breakfast Club with a new kitchen. 

According to Maude Danis Coulombe, assistant director of Adult General Education at CBM, the Breakfast Club is an extra credit course for those students completing their high-school diploma. The Breakfast Club provides low cost breakfast for students and staff at CBM and it provides club participants with the opportunity to gain important life skills. However, the Adult Education Centre had to put the Breakfast Club on hold earlier this year due to the kitchen no longer being up to code and lacking the proper equipment. 

Students and staff came together and worked on a few fundraising initiatives, including a spaghetti lunch and a chocolate bar sale, to ensure that there is a proper space for the Breakfast Club and its activities. With additional financial support from the Yamaska Literacy Council, the Townshippers’ Foundation, and Desjardins, the Breakfast Club now has an updated kitchen space and new appliances that will allow it to serve people once again. 

CIDI had the chance to speak with Danis Coulombe and Breakfast Club members Dylan Giroux, Marina Kyle, and Phillip Sevigny all about the project.

“It has been such a journey for us, but it feels good. I feel like everyone is on board, engaged. Amazing is the word,” Danis Coulombe told CIDI. 

“It’s wonderful, very wonderful. We waited for about six months to see it working again. Now we have this new kitchen and everything works fine. With all of the people we are working with, it’s perfect,” said Giroux.

Now that the Adult Education Centre has a new kitchen space, Danis Coulombe noted that the centre wants to grow its activities and programs related to cooking and food beyond just the Breakfast Club. 

“There are some ideas. Last year, I would go out, or somebody would go out, and get some snacks. This year, we are cooking them. There is an activity called ‘Healthy Snacks’ that is done with a couple of students and our intention is to [expand] it so that more students learn how to cook and eat healthy,” she told CIDI.  

In a previous interview with CIDI on the kitchen project, Danis Coulombe highlighted that there are concerns on campus related to food insecurity with the inflation in food prices, an issue that the centre wants to continue to address. 

“There are some great initiatives, like the Breakfast Club, but we are trying to create activities so that whatever we cook for the Breakfast Club, if ever it’s not sold during the week, we are going to give it to the students in their classes for free,” she explained. “We are looking at options where we cook more with our students and give them some tips on how they can get some food at a cheaper cost. For sure it is still a big concern for everyone in the centre that our students eat well.”

For the students that participate in the Breakfast Club, having a new kitchen space will allow them to continue to work on their personal development.

“As soon as I can get my own apartment, I am still going to need these skills in life and so will my team. Anyone new definitely benefits [from] getting one credit and learning all of these skills - cooking, cleaning, and you get to learn a little bit about how kitchen life is,” mentioned Kyle. 

“I find that doing this has helped me with my customer services skills, working at the counter and just chatting with the customers,” said Sevigny. 

For Giroux, the Breakfast Club helped him open up more to other people on campus. 

“When I first started this, I was a bit introverted. I didn’t really know how to talk to people. Then I met Marina and Owen, and everyone else that was there for the first year [of Breakfast Club]. It helped me open up and realize that hey, talking with people is fun and it’s a good thing to know, especially with strangers,” said Giroux. 

The Breakfast Club’s menu offers a variety of items, including grilled cheese, breakfast sandwiches, baked goods, and more to staff and students at CBM. It is open from Monday to Thursday from 8 a.m. to 9:45 a.m.

Listen to the radio program below: