The community is invited to celebrate the launch of the Verdant Community Wellness Center at an open house on Saturday, Jan. 24 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 4710 196th St. SW in Lynnwood.

The open house will give the public a sampling of the types of services that will be offered, including food and fun demonstrations in the kitchen, information and presentations by instructors that will teach classes in the Center. Kids’ activities, including face painting and special snacks provided by PCC’s TasteMobile, will make it fun for the whole family.

The Verdant Community Wellness Center, will offer classes, support groups, trainings and more for free or low-cost to the public as well as serve as the main office for Verdant staff. A wide range of programs and classes are already scheduled, including classes about Healthy Cooking, Parenting, Stress Management and a Couch to 5K Training Program.

“We at Verdant support the residents of South Snohomish County by investing in health and wellness programs,” said Bob Knowles, president of the Board of Commissioners for Verdant. “Since 2011, we’ve provided $9.23 million in programming, and the opening of the Verdant Community Wellness Center is the next step in our efforts to improve the health and wellness of our community.”

The nearly 9,000-square-feet building will include a large training room, a demonstration kitchen for healthy cooking classes, a medium-sized classroom, several smaller meeting rooms, plug-and-play work stations for Verdant’s partners and office space for Verdant’s six employees.

“We have dreamed of this space for several years and are excited to open the doors to the community,” said Carl Zapora, superintendent of the Verdant Health Commission. “We are thrilled to have found a permanent location that’s centrally located for our residents, easy to access and will give us plenty of flexibility to serve our residents well in the years to come.”

The general contractor on the project is MJ Takisaki, Inc., and the architect is Ankrom Moisan.