WALLAN’S Love in Action member Kellie Dwyer hopes a new recipe book compiled by the community support group’s members will empower people to cook healthy meals with few ingredients.
The book has 66 recipes contributed by the Wallan community and includes a range of dishes comprised of meat, chicken, as well as desserts.
Ms Dwyer said when she came up with the idea, she posed the idea to the community via Facebook to gauge interest.
“We had such an unprecedented amount of need within the community packing 10 to 15 hampers each week and emergency hampers during the week, so I wanted to create something that helped people have the food not only stretch, but to give ideas on different healthy ideas that allowed them to be creative with what they had,” she said.
“The cookbook is $10. I tried to keep it as affordable as possible for the community and all of the recipes were contributed by the local community.
“When I had the idea, I put a call out on the Facebook pages within Wallan and Love in Action and I had an amazing response, people were only too happy to get involved.”
Ms Dwyer said she hoped the cookbook would empower people to be able to make healthier and tastier meals from a small number of ingredients.
“Love in Action has created an amazing culture and sense of community that along with donating so many items to help feed their ‘neighbours’, they’re helping each other with tools on how to use the grocery items, the community literally feeding the community,” she said.
“It’s a great fundraiser as well, we have about 200 families on the books with Love in Action, and each year the team packs amazing hampers of Christmas fare and grocery items, plus the all-important gifts for each member of the family, the proceeds will go to the purchase of items that bring the magic and joy of Christmas back to people’s lives.
“I included a quote about kindness on each page to remind people to embrace kindness and giving in their daily lives, Wallan is a special neighbourhood where there’s such a culture of unity, I wanted to keep that going.
“Every recipe is simple, easy and uses what we would all usually keep in our pantries with the occasional extra. When I put out the call, I requested all of the tried and tested meals on a budget that were simple and didn’t require hours in the kitchen.”
The Love in Action cookbook is available for purchase at the Bendigo Bank Wallan branch or by contacting Love in Action Wallan on Facebook.
