A free eight week 'Senior Chef' course designed to encourage older people to improve their cooking skills will be held at the Selwyn Homestead, 21 Youngs Road, Papakura, from Thursday, 29 September and at Pukekohe's St Andrew's Anglican Church from Wednesday, 12 October.
Senior Chef is a fun, practical, 'hands-on' course for older people who want to re-kindle their interest in cooking or who want to learn to cook. The programme is free-of-charge, with all ingredients and materials provided and is open to seniors who live alone or care for a partner and who want to improve their skills, motivation or confidence around cooking.
Held over eight consecutive weeks, each class lasts three hours (from 10.00am – 1.00pm) and includes morning tea and lunch. Facilitated by a trained dietician from the NZ Nutrition Foundation, each session covers preparing and cooking a meal in pairs, which is then shared with the group, and offers tips and advice on healthy eating for older people, menu planning, food shopping and budgeting.
Senior Chef is funded by The Selwyn Foundation in partnership with the NZ Nutrition Foundation. Selwyn's Community Programmes Manager, Heather Whineray, says:
'Senior Chef is a wonderful opportunity for older people living alone in the community to renew their interest in cooking and eating healthily, and to make friends whilst learning in a fun and supportive environment.'
'The programme aims to inspire confidence and build cooking skills in people who lack experience in this area, and to show participants how nutritional wellbeing in older age can enhance health, independence and quality of life.'
