Georgetown’s Sanctuary Holistic Kitchen offers allergan free ready-made meals, healthy cooking classes and apothecary skincare items and supplements.
“We are an herbal apothecary with a top allergen-free kitchen and an education space for healthy living,” Owner Robin Cervantes explained. “It’s a safe place, it’s a sanctuary. I feel that people keep coming in here because it feels nourishing. Whether it’s the classes, or the food, or the herbs.”
Ms. Cervantes holds a certificate from The Institute for Integrative Nutrition as a Certified Integrative Health Counselor and has been certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners.
“There is a giant purpose for what we do here, which is to really enrich the health of the whole community, whether they’re purchasing something from us or if we’re teaching them how to do it themselves,” she said. “Either way, it’s still impacting the community.”
Ms. Cervantes’ business has grown a lot over the years. She started Sanctuary Holistic Kitchen at the Wolf Ranch Farmers Market in 2015. She opened the first location in 2018 and moved on to her current location in March of 2020.
“When I first started, no one had any idea about anything that I did,” she said. “I think that with new people moving in and the demographics changing in Georgetown, health is more at the front of people's minds.”
As an Integrative Health Specialist, she said she helps shoppers by looking at how their nutritional needs could be affecting their health.
“I can offer suggestions for foods that I think will be nourishing [...] and also suggest supplements that could help with different ailments or support certain health goals,” Ms. Cervantes said. “I always like starting with the food component, because everybody eats to nourish themselves — then that’s a great jumping point to introduce some of the other things that we have here that people wouldn’t think to ask for, like a tincture or a syrup.”
Even if the shop sells the products, She said the business's goal is to teach people how to make their own food and supplies.
“We’ll teach people how to make bone broth, even though we sell a ton of bone broth,” she said. “We feel like these are essential skills and these are essential aids to your health. There is no reason why you should have to buy our elderberry syrup for $24 per bottle if that doesn’t work for you.”
Classes offered
Sanctuary Holistic Kitchen offers a variety of different hands-on classes for adults, teens and children.
“I’ve always wanted to have an educational component attached to the business.” Ms. Cervantes said.
Upcoming courses include:
- Healthy Quick Family Dinner and Meal Prep at 6:30 p.m. on June 5
- Kids Cooking Show Camp (Ages 6 to 13) June 11 through June 14
- Fermentation Class: Kefir & Beet Kvass on Saturday June 15 at 11:30 a.m.
- Teen Culinary Intensive (Ages 12 to 17) July 16 through June 19
Six week long intuitive eating programs for adults are offered each fall and in the New Year Resolution season.
Navigating the menu
Sanctuary Holistic Kitchen offers cleanse packages for bulk purchases of food and juices, giving customers the opportunity to pick up multiple meals worth of food.
Everyday, there is an animal protein soup special and a veggie soup special. There is also a flavored bone broth. Each week, the menu is themed around a different cuisine — whether that be Italian, Asian or something else — with unique meals each day.
Potential health benefits
Ms. Cervantes said that her ready-made meals and juices can help reduce inflammation, seasonal allergies and arthritis pain while boosting the immune system. Her recipes contain no gluten, dairy, eggs, cane sugar, peanuts, corn, soy, shellfish or peanuts. She also doesn’t use canola oil or other oils that she believes causes inflammation. All sauces and dressings are made in-house.
While planning the menu, Ms. Cervantes takes into account which spices and herbs are seasonally appropriate. During the summer, the menu contains a lot of cooling herbs such as basil or thyme which help with summer allergies. In the winter, she incorporates warm herbs like cumin and chile pepper or clove and cinnamon which protect against winter colds.