Dapur Komunitas Mendira (Mendira Community Kitchen) is a community kitchen development project in Mendira, Jombang. Mendira, located on the edge of the Anjasmara forest, has rich biodiversity and local wisdom to explore. This project is carried out by Holopsis together with Kelompok Perempuan Sumber Karunia Alam (KPSKA, Natural Resources Women’s Group). The group, consisting of 8 women from Mendira, rented a plot of land in the village to cultivate wild food plants. The kitchen is plotted to be placed next to this agroecological garden and will be used by residents for the development of food products that focus on local plant varieties.

The construction of this community kitchen is carried out through a residency process that began in February 2016. Three architect/design/art practitioners were invited to interact and build an ecological community kitchen with residents by keeping in mind potentials of the surrounding nature. Apart from the three residency participants, there werer also invited architects, environmentalists, designers and other artists to visit Mendira and contribute to the construction of the Mendira Community Kitchen. Ecological concepts such as kitchen compost processing, use of biogas and efficient water management are implemented in this project.

This project was supported as part of DANA SAM DAN LINGKUNGAN 2015