WOKING community cook Charlotte Fraser is drawing on chef Jamie Oliver’s skills to help families in need create simple and nutritional recipes.

Charlotte works for FoodWise, a local Christian charity that, before the COVID-19 restrictions, delivered food provision, training and education to the isolated, the elderly and those experiencing financial hardship.

To help the community further, Charlotte was invited to take part in Tesco’s online community cookery school.

The school’s course was developed by Oliver-trained community cooks, Tesco development chefs and nutritionists.

It covers preparation skills and basic nutrition, as well as offering flexible recipes which can be adapted to a wide variety of donated food.

The free course provided funding for Charlotte to purchase food and any cooking equipment she needed to take part, as well as a detailed insight into a range of recipes that she can pass on to those in need.

She said: “We’ve always aimed to show people that cooking doesn’t have to be a chore and that they can go for healthy options that don’t take forever to prepare. The Tesco course was brilliant for that.

“I’m really pleased to have been part of it. COVID has disrupted our work, so we started doing the cooking ourselves and distributing the meals to those in need. We’ve been delivering about 400 meals a week.

“But as the pandemic restrictions look like they might ease in the coming weeks, we’re starting to think about how we can get back to teaching small groups of people again.

“We’ve done courses on Zoom and people in the community have told us how valuable the courses are to them. It’s another skill for them to have, as well as the obvious practical benefits of feeding their family.

“I’m now looking forward to passing on what I learnt from the Tesco course to our local families.”

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