Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
The cooking program that has started here at the
Multicultural Council began in July of 2011.
It runs on a weekly basis and we conduct it between the hours of 9.30 and 1.30.
They start straight away generally with very little discussion.
They have organised the recipe for the week before so they know exactly what they are
doing and how long it's going to take so they very quickly get in.
We wash our hands, the aprons go on and they get stuck into it.
And it's done over the charcoal barbecue?
Yes, that's right.
I think the cooking program and other activities that are offered outside the detention
centre is an important thing for people's health and wellbeing.
If people are able to, even if it is for a couple of hours each week, for a four-week
block come in to a setting like ours, have the opportunity to prepare and cook their own
traditional food, it provides them with that sense of ownership, that sense of control
and that happiness that they are able to share the food with each other but also with
other people from outside in the community such as the staff here, such as the
volunteers, such as the community that come in and support the program.
Food is a really important way of bringing people together.
And I've noticed that with the activities that I run here at the Multicultural Council,
if there is any mention of food being in the activity you get a full house.
You get everybody coming and so it does draw people together.
And whether you have all different languages, three or four different languages in the
room, despite that difference in language we somehow still are able to communicate around
foods, so it really does bring everybody together.