Building confidence one meal at a time

Every Thursday, residents at McAuley House Footscray had the opportunity to join Cook Club, making their own lunch while building practical skills and confidence in the kitchen.

When experiencing homelessness, many women lose the liberty of shopping for and preparing their own meals. Over time, this can affect their confidence in the kitchen and make cooking independently feel daunting.

The Food for Life program supports residents at McAuley House Footscray to rebuild these skills while rediscovering some of the pleasure and comfort that can come from preparing and sharing food.

In January, Cook Club was introduced to the program as a new way to make this learning more hands-on. Each Thursday, residents who wanted to participate gathered in the kitchen and prepared their own lunch from start to finish. Rather than sharing a stove and cooking a meal for the whole House, each resident had their own induction cooktop, ingredients and workspace.

A recipe and all its ingredients provides a strong starting point, alongside extra ingredients from the pantry and fridge that women could choose to include. The activity provides opportunities to practice following recipes, learn new techniques and experiment with adapting meals to suit their own tastes.

Cook Club also creates opportunities for informal conversations about nutrition, from building a balanced plate to finding new ways to incorporate vegetables. Staff have noticed women experimenting with a wider variety of vegetables when cooking their own lunch, compared to when meals are provided.

For some women, Cook Club has also been a stepping stone towards cooking for the whole House. Preparing food for other people can be an intimidating prospect, particularly for new residents, but Cook Club offers a supportive environment to build confidence while initially only being responsible for their own meal. For some, that confidence grew to the point they felt ready to help with community lunches.

There’s an important social element, too. Once the cooking was done, everyone sat down to eat together, sharing what they enjoyed, what they might do differently next time and what they learnt along the way.

Looking ahead, the program will incorporate budgeting to help women learn the average cost of each meal, identify affordable ingredient swaps and make the most of what they already have available.

While the skills will last beyond their time at McAuley House Footscray, Cook Club is also about enjoying the process – trying new things, building confidence in the kitchen and rediscovering the comforts of cooking.