1. Cultural Food Checklist
In this exercise, please apply each statement to your experiences in a cooperative/collective
kitchen space.
Score 5 if statement is always true for you
Score 3 if the statement is sometimes true for you
Score 0 if the statement is seldom true for you
Because of my cultures/traditions…
1___I can freely walk into my co-op kitchen and find ingredients that I have grown up
with at home.
2___I have the ability to cook my traditional foods in my co-op kitchen.
3___Whenever there is a cultural themed meal, I can say that I am comfortable with the
theme.
4___I feel comfortable cooking my traditional foods in my co-op kitchen.
5___When it comes to my traditional food in fine dining restaurants, I know that people
from my culture are cooking these foods in the kitchen.
6___If I walk into a fine dining restaurant that serves my traditional foods, I see people
from my culture eating at the restaurant.
7___At the supermarket/grocery store, my traditional foods are not in a separately named
aisle or shelf that indicate my ethnicity.
8___In fine dining restaurants, my traditional foods looks and tastes the way that it is
prepared at home.
9___When I walk into a supermarket/grocery store, I can find the basic staple foods that
fit with my cultural traditions
10___I can state that people have never asked me for the recipes of the foods that I eat or
make.
11___I can say that people have never ask me what I’m eating.

2. 12___When I make a traditional dish, people don’t ask me what’s in it.
13___When people see me eating food from my culture, people do not tell me how or
when they have had it before.
14___When it come to my traditional food, people do not tell me that it looks different,
weird, or gross.
15___In terms of food purchasing in the co-ops, my food recipes do not get dismissed.
16___When it comes to food purchasing, produce and ingredients used to cook my
traditional food are never held subject to being local, organic, or sustainable.
17___If I see people not from my culture cooking my traditional food, I am comfortable in
teaching them how to cook my traditional dishes.
18___If people from a culture other than my own cook my traditional food, I don’t take
offense if my comfort foods do not look the way they are supposed to.
19___People can recognize my cultural dishes.
20___When it comes to the appearance of my traditional/ comfort foods, people are never
thrown off by the way it looks or smells.
21___My traditional food never gets associated or grouped with foods from other cultures
and traditions within my ethnic or racial identities.
22___I never feel like I fulfill stereotypes based on my food choices.
23___My food is not exotic in my social circles.
24___My traditional food is never seen as a new fad/trend.
Total: _____