Great smells waft through The Salvation Army's Cedar House homeless centre in Dublin on Wednesday mornings as a small group of men meet for cookery classes with Captain Joanna. The men are learning how to prepare tasty nutritious meals on a limited budget.

"Cooking is an important skill which the men need to learn in order to support themselves in their own homes. The meals we prepare are simple, nutritious, tasty and cost effective," said Joanna.

Firm favourites have been mince, pasta dishes, curry, stir fry and puddings.

Joanna has also taken the men shopping for ingredients, showing then how to select their ingredients, make substitutes and get the best values deals.

"The men each prepare an aspect of the meal. They get recipe instructions cards with suggestions for alternative ingredients and ways to serve the dish, and then we sit down and eat together," she explained. "When we have finished we talk about what went well and what didn't and how we could make improvements."

"The course has been really good, the men feel more confident that they can cook and other service users look forward to sharing out any extra meals that are left. We are quite informal and enjoy the opportunity to chat and get to know each other better, often having times of sharing troubles and concerns while we are working."

"The learning is about more than just cooking it is also about getting used to working as part of a team again, improving social skills and feeling they have something to give back when they are able help each other," explained Captain Joanna.

The men have already asked to extend the course to cover other basic household chores such as washing and ironing.





[Re-printed in Christian Today with the kind permission of The Salvation Army]