Your Community
Roberti Community House
Community:
Waukegan
Focus Areas:
- Food Access
- Nutrition / Food / Gardening Education
- School Programs / Youth Education
- Workforce Development
Organization Mission:
The mission of Roberti Community House is to nourish, educate, and empower community members so that they can acknowledge, appreciate, and actualize their individual strengths and talents.
Description:
RCH hosts a variety of programs, which include:
- Gardening: Together with neighbors of all ages, the RCH oversees and manages the gardens at the community house as well as the nearby garden located on the grounds of the Holy Family Food Pantry. Every week we are out in the gardens planting, weeding, and sampling what is harvested and distributing locally grown produce to families. Families enjoy the benefits of the garden and learn about healthy produce from seedling to table. Our Junior Green Youth Farm program targets middle school youth and is an 8-week program.
- Summer drop in for youth, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-3 p.m. Our doors are open every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon for this drop in program providing a safe, fun place for kids to feel welcomed. We exercise their brains with fun reading and math games and get their bodies moving with yoga and other creative exercise.
- Roberti Culinary Pathway: RCP launched in 2018 and is a free 9-week culinary training course for unemployed/underemployed people in the area. RCP teaches culinary skills in order to provide students employable skills in the culinary industry. The meals the students prepare each week are donated back to the community. Local produce is used to support additional meals served to those in need.
- Cooking: We offer cooking class to youth and adults. Cooking demonstrations, classes, and a myriad of recipes are offered to explain the many ways various produce can be prepared. “Food, Fun, and Friendship,” a weekly drop-in cooking class; Junior and Master Chef cooking classes for youth; Mondays and Tuesday summer “tastings” of fresh produce in the garden; Healthy Slow Cooker Classes; All of our cooking classes focus on nutrition and how to make healthy, affordable meals.
- After-school program: Meets every Tuesday and Thursday during the school year and offers a safe place, a meal, connections, homework assistance, and support.
- Other programs including sewing classes for adults and teens, yoga, and English classes for adults.
- We partner with many local agencies such as: Liberty Prairie Foundation, Chicago Botanic Gardens, University of Illinois Extension, Jefferson Middle School, Waukegan Park District, Lake County Forest Preserve, Lake County Health Department, DePaul University, and local food pantries.