
National Lottery backs local bread making course in Newtown
Cultivate, a community food co-operative based in Newtown, was recently awarded £337,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund for a new project called 'Get Growing, Get Cooking, Get Skills'.
One of the key aims of the project is to work with people from across Newtown and Welshpool to give them the skills and confidence to cook fresh food from scratch.
In partnership with Newtown College, part of the Neath Port Talbot Group of Colleges, Cultivate hosted a bread-making course with NPTC teaching the course in their own kitchens at the Newtown site.
Participants were also asked what additional cooking courses they would like to take part in, and these included baking with different flours, batch cooking and preserving, and Mediterranean foods.
Sue Lloyd-Jones, Head of School Catering, Hospitality and Agriculture across the NPTC Group, said: 'It was wonderful to see so many enthusiastic cooks learning to cook using our fabulous local produce.'
Erika Jones, catering lecturer, added: 'A great opportunity to work with some lovely local produce – the end product was amazing – well done all the students.'
Nick Burdekin, North Powys Sustainable Food Places Co-ordinator for Cultivate, added: 'A huge thank you to Neath Port Talbot College and Erika and Sue for hosting this course and for everyone who came along and took part.
'We know from feedback that participants' confidence levels to use what they had learnt to bake and cook at home has gone up considerably, and that everyone would like to take part in more cooking courses.
'We look forward to working with the college to put on additional cooking courses.'
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