SIX-WEEK courses to help council house tenants plan and create low-cost meals under a budget have taken place at St Michael's Community Centre in Bemerton Heath.

The aim of the course - a partnership between Wiltshire Council and the Pantry Partnership CIC - was to help people to feel more confident in the kitchen and to eat healthily.  

Wiltshire Council Cabinet Member for Housing, councillor Phil Alford, said: “Supporting communities to live safely and healthily is a key priority in our business plan and with the current cost of living crisis, and the ever-more important need to save money and budget effectively, we are delighted to team up with The Pantry Partnership to deliver these cookery courses.”

“Participants have benefited from learning knife skills and all about food hygiene and, importantly, are also gaining some great budget advice, healthy recipe ideas, shopping tips and techniques. They also have the added benefit of taking their freshly prepared and healthy meals home to their families after each session.”

Participants were provided with aprons and knives to help to get them started back at home.

The Pantry Partnership is a social enterprise based in the area working with the community to provide low-cost, nutritious meals – all of which are made from surplus food which would normally go to waste.

Director of The Pantry Partnership, Fiona Ollerhead, said: “The course has been designed to include both parents and their children, helping families to make finances stretch to meet smaller budgets as well as aiming to ensure healthy eating is not only experienced but enjoyed by young people.

“One of the approaches that we aim to instil is a love of food using basic and simple (and often, also low cost) ingredients to create delicious food, thus inspiring people to continue to cook easy, yet tasty meals at home, on a budget. 

She added: “We are also keen to save food from going into the bin, so we show people through demos and activities how to make the best of fruit and vegetables, bread and odds and ends and to create healthy meals from them.” 

There is the potential to offer more courses in the future.