Cooking with culture: Healthy food workshops
FOOD has the power to bring people together, and that’s exactly what one inclusive program is doing.
The Queensland Country Women’s Association recently held its Country Kitchens program to teach cultural groups how to cook nutritious food.
Program facilitator for the Darling Downs Wendy Gordon said it had helped improve the health and wellbeing of people living in regional, remote and rural communities.
“The program focuses of five key factors – portion sizes, less sugar in drinks, cooking at home, sit less, move more and get more fruit and vegetables into your diet,” she said.
“We offer cooking demonstrations and have a nutritionist here from Brisbane today and then the participants get to cook the recipes themselves.”
Offering many benefits, the program also assists participants who use English as a second language.
Anna Titlbach moved to Australia from the Philippines to be with her now husband who is from Australia.
But when she first moved to the country, she encountered language barriers and cultural differences.
The program has taught the mother-of-two to get more creative in the kitchen and find healthier alternatives for her children’s school lunches.
Recipes cooked this week included black bean brownies, chickpea curry salad, zucchini and chickpea fritters and apricot and nut loaf.
It was sponsored by St Vincent de Paul’s Society as part of the English as a Second Language program.