If your church hosts children’s events – like mother and baby groups, after-school clubs, play groups or Sunday school – a kitchen can be a real blessing. From offering much needed caffeine to sleep deprived parents to preparing snacks for children, your kitchen brings much needed support to your church hall activities.

However, having your kitchen open when there are so many small children about can be a nerve-wracking experience – to the point that many church organisers simply close the space off if the hall is being used for children’s activities. It doesn’t need to be this way. With the right planning and appropriate safety measures, your kitchen can be a safe edition to your children’s clubs and activities.

Safe for small hands
At home, most of us keep our cleaning products under the sink – but with children around in a busy space like a church hall, it’s simply not a safe option. A cache cupboard to store any dangerous (or even just messy) items is essential, and it’s easily built in as part of a Steelplan Kitchen. For an even more secure option, you could fit camlocks to all of the kitchen cupboards, ensuring total peace of mind.

Separating the space
Creating a kitchen that’s separate from your main hall isn’t always easy, especially if you have a small space to work with. Adding shutters around the kitchen space, or to close off the serving hatch, is a great way to keep the kitchen safe and secure. Some churches have opted for a pod kitchen to work around space issues – take a look at this case study to find out more.

Hygienically clean
If your kitchen is used to prepare food for children as part of a day care or play group setting, hygiene is fundamentally important. Yet having confidence that your work surfaces are easy to clean isn’t just important to keep germs at bay – it’s also vital to ensure that allergens (particularly severe ones, such as peanuts) can be cleaned away thoroughly. A powder coated semi-commercial kitchen, like those created at Steelplan Kitchens, don’t contain any materials that may sustain, encourage or harbour bacteria, such as wooden cabinets or surfaces.

A Steelplan Kitchens design expert can help you choose the safety options that are right for your church. Call us on 0844 809 9186.