Made with Love: Uncomplicated Kitchen is promoting food literacy through community

Winter 2026

Made with Love: Uncomplicated Kitchen is promoting food literacy through community:

WRITER:

_{Daniel Rochez and Jenna Kranz}

Jenna Kranz never thought she’d be starting her own nonprofit, but like so many other founders, she responded to a need in her community. Kranz noticed that despite our regon’s abundance of agriculture, not everyone knows how to use local ingredients to prepare healthy meals. This prompted her to open Uncomplicated Kitchen, a charitable organization that promotes food literacy with free online and in-person courses and recipes. “People wanted to do fun things with the food they had access to—whether it was beans and rice or kale—but they didn’t know how to,” she says. Kranz explains that many people used to learn how to cook through family traditions or home economics classes, but those lessons aren’t happening as much today, leading to a loss of knowledge in the world of home cooking.

“So many things in my life led me to that moment,” Kranz explains, recalling how friends often came to her for assistance with Thanksgiving dishes and other special meals. Uncomplicated Kitchen utilizes, “a holistic approach to food security,” says Kranz. “There are no shortage of organizations that work hard to ensure people have access to foods . . . but what next? We teach people how to cook safely. We teach people how to cook to fit their lifestyle.”

For people with mobility issues or with small children at home, Uncomplicated Kitchen teaches recipes with built-in breaks for rest. When working with adults that are cooking for lots of children, the nonprofit focuses on big-batch and freezer-friendly meals. They even collaborate with college students to help them find recipes that work with their meal plans or that can be cooked in a dorm. Uncomplicated Kitchen also teaches classes on knife safety, budget shopping, and growing foods at home and preserving them.

“I do not come from money. Everything in Uncomplicated Kitchen is based on a life lesson that I had to learn because I didn’t have time, I didn’t have money, and I didn’t have access to a lot of things,” she explains.

This winter, Uncomplicated Kitchen is holding a series of lessons on cooking with an Instant Pot, a gadget used by many different households. To learn more about volunteering with or donating to Uncomplicated Kitchen, visit their website.