More than 30 households in Weymouth have benefitted from cookery classes thanks to a community grant.

The Friendly Food Club offers social cooking programmes for disadvantaged and marginalised adults and children in Dorset, as well as for older and vulnerable groups.

The sessions differ from teaching cookery skills to healthy eating. 

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Dorset Echo: The Friendly Food Club helps teach children how to cook and enjoy healthy eating The Friendly Food Club helps teach children how to cook and enjoy healthy eating (Image: Friendly Food Club)

The food charity had successfully applied for a Weymouth Town Council community grant of just over £1,100 which it used to buy cooking equipment.

This included slow cookers, air fryers, pressure cookers, and microwaves to be used in their cookery workshops and food education and skills sessions run in the community.

In total, 31 households have benefitted from the scheme, both adults and children. Over a period of six months, 24 individuals have attended two sets of six-week courses held at St Francis Church in Littlemoor.

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The Friendly Food Club say the grant has helped people to learn how to use new kitchen equipment and other important life skills around cooking. 

Dorset Echo: Liz Guilmant-Cush CEO of the Friendly Food Club on the rightLiz Guilmant-Cush CEO of the Friendly Food Club on the right (Image: Friendly Food Club)

One local resident who have taken advantage of the scheme said they had 'learned lots of different ideas', whilst another commented on how the recipes 'are amazing and easy to do'. 

Another individual to have benefitted from the workshops added: “I’ve loved learning to cook with cheap, fresh ingredients.

“I like that recipes can be adapted to different cooking appliances.” 

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CEO of The Friendly Food Club, Liz Guilmant-Cush, said: “The Friendly Food Club team has been overwhelmed by the positive feedback from the participants, particularly their improvement in confidence and cooking skills.   

“Many of them have told us how much more they cook because of their new slow cooker or air fryer. 

"We are thankful to Weymouth Town Council for seeing the benefits to giving such a grant and working in collaboration with other funders to achieve long-lasting changes for many households.” 

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in 2023, the food charity helped 2,000 people with cooking skills and is developing a a new training programme to be offered to other community groups, funded by Dorset Council and Public Health Dorset.

The food charity has also been awarded £300,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund over the next three years.

To find out more about the Friendly Food Club and how to take advantage of their free workshops or to enrol in the training programme visit https://www.thefriendlyfoodclub.org/