Duke of Edinburgh showcases cookery skills during visit to Garioch Community Kitchen
Garioch Community Kitchen in Inverurie received a visit from The Duke of Edinburgh on Saturday.
Established in 2012, the hub exists to enhance the health and wellbeing of the local community within the Garioch and Formartine areas.
This is done by providing practical, hands on, innovative accredited cookery courses and classes to both children and adults.
Most courses delivered are funded and aim to increase confidence, skills, dietary choices while promoting long-term benefits of a healthy lifestyle and transferable workplace skills.
The Garioch Community Kitchen is led by a voluntary management committee comprising eight members with diverse backgrounds who bring a range of skills to the table.
The cookery sessions are all planned and delivered within the purpose built training kitchen by the team of food skills tutors who have many years of experience and are supported by volunteers.
During the visit Prince Edward spoke to many people who have attended and benefited from cookery classes. They were able to provide first-hand experience of how the Garioch Community Kitchen has benefited them both in a practical sense of learning new skills and increasing confidence but also from a wellbeing perspective by meeting new people.
The Duke also visited Inverurie Community Campus on Saturday.
Sarah Bell, the business development manager, spoke to The Duke of Edinburgh about how adaptable the Garioch Community Kitchen can be and an example of this was during the Covid-19 pandemic when the charity diverted its funding to provide more than 100 local families food parcels for several months by linking in with local schools to identify families who would benefit.
Following the success of the food parcels the charity began to offer recipe bag collections which are still offered at the kitchen today as it realises that it is not possible for everyone to go along to a cookery class for various reasons including childcare, caring responsibilities as well as mental health conditions.
During the visit, Mandy Dambruoso food skills tutor discussed a recent programme the kitchen delivered in partnership with Home-Start Garioch with the Duke.
During the six-week programme parents along with their children took part supported by their Home-Start volunteer. This gave the parents a chance to cook while their Home-Start volunteer looked after the children.
The courses focus on demonstrating how to plan and create healthy budget friendly meals and avoid food waste. This has never been so important given the cost of living crisis.
The Duke of Edinburgh also had the opportunity to speak directly with some of the parents and hear how they had benefited from the course and the impact it had upon them.
Frances Leiper, food skills tutor, spoke to Prince Edward about the various children’s cooking classes that are offered which are hugely popular.
This includes a Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland accredited teen cookery course over a four-week period and several young people undertake this course as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme as well as receiving a nationally recognised qualification.
Frances said: “It was a privilege to meet the The Duke and to find out he was no stranger to using a slow cooker.
"It was such fun watching him roll his sleeves up and make scones and pizza with the children. A day to remember for many.”
Part of the reason the Garioch Community Kitchen is successful in reaching those who need help is by collaboratively working with other organisations.
Over the past year it has worked with Grampian Opportunities to provide a six-week cookery course to its Go Dynamic group.
It works closely with the local primary and secondary schools to reach children and families and are fortunate to have Lindsay Threadgold, depute head of Meldrum Academy, as one of its trustees.
The Duke was then introduced to some of the volunteers at the Garioch Community Kitchen and found out about how volunteering with the charity has benefited them and what they enjoyed.
It was then time for Prince Edward to get an apron on and join a couple of groups of children making scones and pizza.
This was lots of fun and the children enjoyed telling the Duke what their favourite pizza toppings were.
To commemorate the visit The Duke of Edinburgh unveiled a plaque and was presented with a Garioch Community Kitchen apron and a recipe bag before his departure.
