Lends expertise and support to those with disability
Participate Australia provides a range of disability services and works with people with disabilities to help them develop their skills to lead them to greater independence and with the support of Canterbury League Club, have introduced a group of them to cooking.
The group had earlier this year completed a six-week introductory cooking program with the club before returning to complete an advanced cooking program.
A spokesperson for the club said the participants really enjoyed themselves and “were smiling form ear to ear at their graduation ceremony”.
Andrea Natoli, from Partnerships and Development Manager for Participate Australia, said there were lots of participants who expressed an interest to do more classes because they had learnt so much from the first classes and had enjoyed it a lot.
“So rather than repeat the same class, we came up with the idea of doing an advanced cooking class,” she said.
In the advanced classes, participants were put through their paces and learned to make more complex recipes like muffins, cookies, dumplings, stir-fry noodles, zucchini fritters, pizza and pies.
This time the classes focused more on knife skills, preparation and individually making the recipes on their own with minimal assistance.
Aside from cooking, they also honed their practical life skills like counting, weighing ingredients, reading the recipe, grocery shopping and handling money, group communication, socialisation and teamwork.
“A program like this is beneficial as it shows participants how they can use these skills in a real life, everyday environment,” Ms Natoli said.
