NLTG have teamed up with the Hyndburn Food Pantry again, this time to offer a free four-week slow cooker course – which also saw participants receive a free slow cooker, utensils and a cookery book!
The lessons were hosted at NLTG’s Old Bakery Centre on Grange Lane in Accrington. Sessions, run by NLTG staff and including information, cooking lessons and tasters of everything cooked, lasted up to two hours at a time.
The classes focussed on nutrition and healthy cooking, as well as the savings that can be made using a slow cooker compared to the pre-paid electric cost of using an oven.
Research has shown that slow cookers when left on all day use less electricity than conventional lightbulbs, using between 1.2-1.7 kWh of electricity to cook a meal for eight hours, while in comparison, a standard oven will use 2.4 kWh per hour on average. That means using a standard slow cooker will cost you just 32p to run for eight hours, compared to £5.36 for an electric oven.
Each attendee was also given a slow cooker of their own courtesy of the Food Pantry, free of charge and appropriate to their family size, plus utensils and a cookery book full of nutritious ideas for meals in their slow cooker.
Vouchers were also handed out to collect ingredients to then make a meal at home using the recipe they learned, in their brand new slow cooker. Lessons included a vegetable curry, beef stew, and even a chocolate brownie recipe slow cooked!
Carl Morris, JCP Provision Manager at NLTG, said: “I’m a baker by trade, and I really enjoyed providing these lessons. Stacy and her team do an amazing job at The Food Pantry and we are delighted to support them in their great work. Everyone knows about the issues being faced on electricity costs and we hope this course will help make a big difference to people in our local community. We also hope to see some of them return and take us up on a longer course in our Hospitality department!”
NLTG supports local people with Apprenticeships, Study Programmes, Traineeships, Commercial Courses and Courses for Job Seekers. You can learn more about these opportunities by visiting www.nltg.co.uk or by calling 01254 395 355.
You can see more about the work of the Food Pantry by looking up Hyndburn Food Pantry on Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/1105479426479091
