By Joanne Dorr
The Haldimand Press
DUNNVILLE—Walk into the True Experience Centre located at 201 Forest Avenue East in Dunnville and you will find a brand new kitchen. This kitchen is the setting for a one-of-a-kind program called True Pantry, launching this month.
This inaugural True Pantry consists of a three-week program running from Tuesday to Thursday of each week and aiming to help people struggling with food insecurities. The current economy combined with unprecedented food prices has created a need to stretch household food budgets as far as possible. The goal of the True Pantry program is to help people overcome these challenges with the help of a cookbook called The Basic Shelf. Program Coordinator, Sharon Arnold, adds, “With The Basic Shelf cookbook, we can help participants plan meals that they never thought of before.”
After the nine sessions, participants will walk away with a copy of the The Basic Shelf cookbook, safe food handling skills, experience preparing a recipe of their choosing, and guidance on how to find affordable healthy ingredients at local stores. Arnold goes on to explain dieticians, health inspectors, and homesteading experts will be coming in to speak during the sessions to share their knowledge and expertise.
DUNNVILLE—The Basic Shelf Cookbook – the recipe source for the True Pantry program.
The program will also offer participants the option to obtain their safe food handling certificate, a credential required for both the foodservice industry and healthcare environments. The fees for the certification are covered by the program, as is the support that will set participants up for success. Arnold says, “We’ve partnered with the adult learning centre, who will help participants one-on-one with the modules and prepare for the test.”
At the end of the three weeks, Program Facilitator Joanne VanRavenswaay says, “We are hoping that people will go out to their families and share their learning and tell their stories about good nutrition.”
Made possible through the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation and a variety of private funding sources, True Pantry hopes to deliver sustainable skills to participants. To help with this VanRavenswaay says, “At the end of the course people will be able to take home a set of containers filled with lentils, grains, pastas, boullions, rice, and they will also get sets of seasonings and spices.”
Arnold adds, “We have an outreach worker who will reach out to them after they have completed the program.” Arnold hopes that participants come back to the centre after the course to talk about what they’re doing with their new skills.
The original start date for the program has been changed to September 27. It was postponed from an earlier start date as their new kitchen space will be used throughout coming weeks to decorate cookies for the Tim Hortons’ Smile Campaign.
Spaces are still available for the first session, with True Pantry courses repeating every three weeks. Anyone interested in registering can call 905-774-6165. To learn more about True Experience and its programs, visit
trueexperience.ca.
