If you’re in the process of choosing a design for your church building, chances are, you’re excited about all the possibilities for your ministry — and maybe a smidge overwhelmed.
When selecting features for your church layout, it’s crucial to incorporate practical and functional elements that will support and advance your ministry — like a commercial kitchen. Commercial kitchens are one of the most utilized (yet overlooked) features in church design that can improve ministry events, create outreach opportunities, and even provide additional income.
Commercial Kitchen vs. Regular Kitchen: Which One Is Right for My Church?
Commercial kitchens are built to serve food to the public. These kitchens, unlike traditional kitchens, feature large storage spaces, heavy-duty appliances, and unique features to meet food safety standards. They can handle a high output and churn out food at a greater capacity than a smaller kitchen, such as the one you would find in your home.
Churches that host large events (like weddings and memorials), want to serve meals to the public (like people experiencing homelessness or underprivileged children), or would like to rent out their kitchen to create an additional income stream tend to find a commercial kitchen an asset to their church.
Reasons a Commercial Kitchen Is a Valuable Addition to Your Church
Would you like to explore the benefits of adding a commercial kitchen to your church design? If so, keep reading for some creative ways you can utilize a commercial kitchen to advance your ministry.
Church Events
Do you envision hosting several events at your church? If so, having a commercial kitchen can make preparing food, serving meals, and cleaning up before and after events much easier. These are some church events where a commercial kitchen will come in handy:
- Potluck Sunday. Would you like to host lunch after service on Sunday or brunch before church? If so, having a commercial kitchen where you can store, prepare, and serve food to your congregation will prove to be helpful.
- Holiday Events. Although most events come around once a year, if you host an Easter Brunch, Mother’s Day Tea, Christmas Eve Dinner, or Vacation Bible School, it’s helpful to have a commercial kitchen where you can prepare meals, snacks, and drinks.
- Weddings & Memorials. If your church hosts ceremonies, receptions, or memorial services, you’ll find a commercial kitchen helpful in your church design. Whether your staff or an outside catering team serves the guests, a commercial kitchen (rather than a traditional kitchen) is better suited for handling events of this size.
Outreach Opportunities
If it’s important for your church to give back to the community, a commercial kitchen can be a significant asset to your ministry. These are just a few of the ways your new commercial kitchen can help you serve others:
- Food Drives. Do you typically host a food drive around the holidays? If so, having a commercial kitchen makes collecting, storing, and donating food items (especially perishable items, like meat or cheese) to local charities much more straightforward.
- Soup Kitchen. Would you like to serve meals to people experiencing homelessness in your community? If so, a commercial kitchen is a must for your church design. Since you will be serving the public, you’ll need to get your kitchen licensed as a commercial kitchen, but you will have such a high capacity that you’ll never have to turn anyone away!
- Childcare Programs. If you would like to host an after-school program for needy kids in your community (and would like to serve them a snack or warm meal while they’re at your church), having a commercial kitchen makes it easier to serve these children.
Rental Income
Renting out your commercial kitchen offers tons of unique benefits for your church, like connecting with local businesses, introducing new people to your congregation, and, of course, adding an extra income stream.
- Workforce Development. If there are any workforce development programs in your community looking for a commercial kitchen space, you could allow them to use your kitchen during the weekdays when it’s not in use by your congregation.
- Independent Chefs. If your congregation or community has chefs, bakers, or caters looking for a commercial kitchen where they can cook, bake, or prepare food, you could set a standardized hourly rate for renting your kitchen.
Before renting out your kitchen, it’s essential to ensure this additional income stream won’t impact your nonprofit status. Additionally, it’s vital to make sure your commercial kitchen is up to code (although it should be when you’re using it for church functions anyway,) since this can create liabilities when renting your kitchen to other people or companies.
Design a Commercial Kitchen to Promote Fellowship & Hospitality with Churches by Daniels
If you’d like to unlock all the ministry opportunities available when you add a commercial kitchen to your church, contact our knowledgeable, ministry-minded team at Churches by Daniels.
Since 1980, we’ve helped pastors bring their ministry vision to life by offering design-build services for church facilities. We can create a design for your church (including a commercial kitchen) and help you save time, money, and resources on your project so you can focus on what matters most — your ministry!
After learning more about design-build services with Churches by Daniels, when you’re ready to get started, contact our team to schedule a consultation!
