Fostering Food and Community in Our New Kitchen

With the official move to our new headquarters in Bloomington, MN comes one of the most exciting updates to our operational space and capacity: a beautiful new kitchen! 

For nearly 50 years, Wilderness Inquiry has been bringing people together in the outdoors, and continually exploring and refining the myriad elements it takes to do so. Food, of course, is at the core of any outdoor adventure — adequate and nutritious food is quite literally the powerhouse behind all trips and programs. Thanks to our new building, for the first time we will now benefit for years to come from owning and operating a commercial-grade kitchen space.

Measuring in at 1,250 square feet, the kitchen offers a wide range of workspaces, storage, and equipment. Some exciting equipment updates include: a commercial oven; a high-grade dishwashing and sanitizing area; a food dehydrator; additional fridges; a larger freezer; and a significant addition of shelf storage capacity. 

But these aren’t just fun, shiny toys without a purpose. According to Danee Voss, Wilderness Inquiry’s Operations, Logistics & Food Coordinator, the new kitchen increases overall food system capacity and offers the opportunity to think creatively about our food offerings.

As she put it, “Our hope with the new space is to provide even more high-quality and nutritious meals across all of our trip offerings and to meet participants where they are with their needs.”

Thanks to this new capacity, many recipes have been redeveloped, limiting the amount of pre-made or manufactured ingredients in favor of those prepped in-house, all while maximizing efficiency and ease of use on trips.

The benefits extend even further, though. Beyond the sizable impact of streamlining our internal logistics and operations, these changes have already begun to have a positive ripple effect into the community. Starting this March, volunteers have the opportunity to put on an apron, roll up their sleeves, and get in the kitchen, helping out primarily with dehydrated meal kit assembly. These kits are a core aspect of the broader food system revamp and overhaul we undertook this past year — a long-term, dream project for the organization. Pre-portioned, pre-packaged, well-labeled, dietary-accommodating, and responsibly-sourced (and locally when possible), participants on our near-nature and extended adventures will soon benefit from a wide variety of new menu offerings while out on trail. 

All Hands on Deck

One recent morning, we welcomed four volunteers for several hours of meal kit preparation. After a brief orientation from Danee, and thoroughly washing up, they dug right in. On the menu first: Hash Browns and Taco Mac & Cheese. From scooping dehydrated potato flakes and spiral noodles to labeling stickers and baggies to tying and organizing them, it was all-hands-on-deck, and both work and time flew by.

During a break in the action, we spoke to longtime volunteer and trip participant Patrick McGuigan, who has adventured with Wilderness Inquiry since 2005. He reminisced about his many experiences over this period, including numerous Apostle Islands trips, and remembered fondly our former headquarters on 8th St. near the University of Minnesota. However, in regards to our new building: “It’s clean, it’s very nice. I mean, look at this place, it’s an industrial kitchen, it’s amazing!” 

He also spoke to the most impactful elements he feels in volunteering for or attending Wilderness Inquiry programs and trips. “It’s just nice to meet people of different ages, I mean kids, and just people with different levels of experience,” he described. “If you go and camp with your buddies, you’re kind of all on the same experience level, but this way is so nice.”

Paddling Together

This is a sentiment echoed by Danee: that being together, and working towards common goals together — no matter one’s age, background, experience level, or identity — is central to flourishing together. Volunteer opportunities such as this are one means toward these ends. In her words, “Preparing meals together builds a collective sense of belonging not just in, but with nature, and aligns with one of Wilderness Inquiry’s core values of ‘Paddling Together’.” As she went on to describe, while packing and prepping meals is not unique in terms of local volunteer opportunities, where that food goes is. The meals volunteers help to prepare will venture far and wide — being sent out on trips from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area to Yellowstone National Park and everywhere in between.

In a direct sense, Danee says, by packing out a meal you are potentially fostering a participant’s first time seeing the Milky Way or witnessing the Northern Lights.”

It’s this spirit of giving, of paying it forward, that may be so powerful — perhaps particularly for former Wilderness Inquiry trip participants whose volunteer hours tangibly support the experiences of future ones. For those volunteers who may not — for the moment at least — have the freedom or ability to directly be out on trail (as a Trip Assistant or Personal Care Attendant, for example), the kitchen offers a welcome alternative.

As Patrick put it, “One of the real joys of my life is seeing someone get wide-eyed in the outdoors, because that’s incredible when they see something wild they’ve never seen before.” However, he affirmed how much he welcomes any manner of supporting that possibility, even if that be from afar.

Whether you’d like to help out at paddling events, lend photography skills on trail, be a sign language interpreter, spend time on warehouse and gear maintenance, or, of course, get your hands busy in the kitchen, there will always be opportunities to put your volunteer skills to use with Wilderness Inquiry. The first step is simply to complete an online volunteer application. So come join us! You can make a difference and be an integral part of a multigenerational, diverse, and passionate community.

Or as Patrick summed up so succinctly, when asked what he’d tell someone considering becoming involved with Wilderness Inquiry: “I’d say get your butt out there!”