There’s nothing like sharing food to bring people together, says Jeanette Franklyn​
Grants Advisor for NZ Nutrition Foundation.
Bringing people together and empowering them to cook for themselves was exactly what CCS Disability Action Group Nelson recently achieved, with the support of New Zealand Nutrition Foundation and funding from the Top of the South Community Foundation.
“CCS reached out to the NZ Nutrition Foundation to express a desire and need for nutrition and cooking education. They had noticed that health and nutrition is a challenge for their service users due to lack of knowledge/understanding, financial constraints, apprehension to try new foods and lack of confidence to cook,” says Jeanette.
Over four sessions of the Foundation’s practical, fun and interactive programme ‘Just Cook’ four males and three females learnt to prepare meals and shop for ingredients.
The majority of the participants lived alone except for one who lived with family.
All showed improvements in their knowledge, skills, motivation and confidence to cook a meal.
Some of the aspects of the course that participants found most valuable were; trying new foods, getting involved with cooking, trying new recipes, learning the food groups and receiving and discussing the handouts.
Participants showed they were doing a variety of things differently as a result of completing the course.
Feedback from all who took part was positive with one caregiver saying: “All of my clients found this extremely useful and are keen to be more involved in meal
preparation and grocery shopping”.
Jeanete says the focus of the course was on cooking skills. “Participants also showed a keen interest in expanding their nutrition knowledge and were open to many group discussions. Learning about the different food groups and how to use the healthy plate model when planning meals proved to be the most beneficial for the group.
“It is very rewarding to connect with people in this way helping empower them to be more independent and confident to cook for themselves, moving away from food insecurity and becoming financially more independent.
“One of the skills our facilitators teach is preparing a meal plan and shopping online using Click and Collect which makes it easier to stick within a budget and see exactly how much they are spending,” says Jeanette.
The programme also received funding from COGS Nelson.
Jeanette says the NZ Nutrition Foundation is grateful for TotSCF and COGS funding and hopes to be able to organise more Just Cook programmes in the region.
Such programmes are among the many projects the Foundation is involved with throughout the country.
 
Click NZ Nutrition Foundation for more information.