Cooking for Two or More was adapted from the Cooking for One or Two program developed by the Department of Veteran Affairs in conjunction with Population Health in Newcastle and the University of Newcastle.

Earlier this year, Nutrition & Dietetics Academic Kelly Ancuk along with 4th year students Lisa Henry, Amy Buckingham, and Larine Robinson conducted two cooking sessions with the Dhiiyaan group in Tamworth.  Dhiiyaan Playgroups (Tamworth Family Support Service) operate four supported playgroups for Aboriginal mums with children. UDRH/RCS academics, students and Community Project staff coordinate discipline specific presentations, workshops and education for Dhiiyaan’s playgroups.

The Cooking for Two or More program assists in teaching basic cooking skills and provides education on food and nutrition in relation to children, families and health and allows participants to enjoy a meal as a group.

At each session, participants were encouraged to take part in a section of the cooking to claim ownership of the meal. Students spoke to the participants on specific topics such as cross contamination of foods, hand hygiene, food safety practices, budgeting and healthy eating for the family. At the end of the cooking sessions, participants, children, TAFE child care students, Dhiiyaan and Community Projects staff all sat down and enjoyed the meals together. Each participant was given a book with the recipes cooked during the two sessions and also a set of coloured plastic chopping boards. 

There were ten participants at the first session and seven returned for session two, with up to 25 children at each session being cared for by the TAFE child care students. Participants, upon evaluation rated the sessions as useful and interesting and agreed that the food was tasty and that they would like to participate again in the future.

Kelly and the Community team will be conducting more Cooking for Two or More with Dhiiyaan and are hoping to replicate it in the wider community.