REVERE, MASS. (WHDH) - A new community kitchen opened its doors on Wednesday, mixing culinary education with healthy habits in Revere. 

The new teaching kitchen is being launched in partnership with Mass General Brigham in a recently expanded food pantry at the MGH Revere HealthCare Center.

Mass General Brigham Community Health and Equity Officer Elsie Taveras said the kitchen is the first of its kind across the Mass General Brigham system.

One of the kitchen’s goals is to make nutrition related illnesses a thing of the past by using the kitchen as an educational space.  

Taveras said the kitchen aims to provide patients with “the opportunity to learn about healthy foods, to learn how to prepare them, to learn how to try different things that they might not have tried.”

The food pantry opened back in 2019 to make sure families have access to healthy, plant-based food. 

Following its expansion, the pantry will be able to help 80 families in Revere every week. 

Officials have said the system’s efforts to promote food security were highlighted at the recent White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. 

At the federal level, Rep. Katherine Clark said getting resources like the new kitchen will help fight hunger. 

“It’s not a matter of if we can, but having the will to do it and having these great community partners helping meet the needs of families here in Revere and across the commonwealth is how we get it done,” Clark said during the teaching kitchen’s opening event Wednesday.

MGB officials have said they hope to expand the teaching kitchen’s services by eventually offering online courses. 

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