A new program at the Centre Wellington Food Bank teaches young people how to cook. The food bank was approached by the Food Banks Canada see if it would participate in a seven-week program called the Food Explorers Guide to Cooking for boys and girls ages 8 to 11.
The program was developed by the University of Toronto to teach children how to cook and be safe doing so. The Centre Wellington group was chosen as one of four in Canada to be part of the program.
On May 18 the students were scheduled to cook a meal and serve it to their parents.
Participants learn where food comes from and how to prepare and cook it. Since the food bank has all the facilities for doing this it was decided to run the program at its Fergus facilities and on May 11 participants prepared and cooked ham soup.
The food bank received a grant of $5,000 to operate the the project, which allowed it to purchase some much needed equipment, such as induction burners as well as local food for the program. The chef for the program is Fran Weima of Mill Street Bristo and Smokehouse in Elora and the nutritionist is Doreen Henderson.
Through the program, the students learned how to make breakfast, then lunch, then healthy snacks. They were shown how to plant and harvest and the parts of the plant to make things like a salad that they made last week.
Weima emphasized that, “They try to cook with things that they would have in their home.”
