Community cooking classes help make healthy meals more affordable

It’s becoming a struggle for Australians to afford food which, in turn, affects their health. In Tasmania, a dietician is helping locals cook nutritious dishes at low prices. Enhancing the confidence to cook is what this community cooking class is all about. Cooking has always been a passion for Nalini Burge and, in the class, she’s being taught recipes that incorporate more affordable ingredients. "We cook here and then when I go to the supermarket, it's always in my mind, and then I go and grab those things and I prepare a dish and it's so helpful to me," she explains. The class is called “Gather, Cook, Grow,” and is led by a dietician who helps participants make dishes that are both healthy and inexpensive. Classes are held around Greater Hobart in several neighborhood houses and revolve around using all of the ingredients available while still making tasty food. "They might have never been taught or shown or stick with what they kind of know, feel really comfortable and safe doing and know that it's affordable because food can be stressful particularly if it feels unaffordable," says dietician Danae Giardina. The cooking sessions have helped Fleur Williams plan her meals better and strictly stick to her shopping list, while also replacing meat with lentils or chickpeas which are cheaper. "Different options in pantries, substitutes and stuff like that because I hadn't learnt that type of stuff until I came along here," says Williams. Initiatives like this one are certainly helping Australians cut the cost of their meals, but according to food security experts, the government should be doing more to make grocery bills more affordable for households under financial pressure. And the situation is worsening. In its latest report, the charity Foodbank says more than a third of households experienced moderate to severe food insecurity in 2023 and, for example, skipped a meal to pay for rent or heating. "We found this before the COVID pandemic, before prices went up, so we'd like to see the government increase the rates of payment so that everyone in Australia can afford a healthy diet," says Professor Kathryn Backholer from the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition. This article was provided by The Associated Press.