Culinary tastes combined in community cookbook

From Seed to Table is a collection of dishes that hold meaning to people from the Victorian Uniting AgeWell Noble Park community.

The cookbook is part of an overall project at the facility, designed to promote healthy eating, exercise and community engagement.  

The recipes reflect the cultural diversity of the Noble Park Community, with Kotopoulo Kapana from Greece to Samoan Chop Suey from Samoa and even the basic meatloaf and pavlova.

Proceeds from the sale of the books will go towards establishing a full-scale community garden space with outdoor kitchen facilities on site.

A team of volunteers created the inspiring collection, filled with recipes submitted by residents, clients and volunteers to ensure much loved family recipes don’t get lost through the generations.

“Many of us in the Noble Park Community have fantastic recipes we’ve used for generations that people are always trying to get hold of,” says Community Programs Coordinator Michelle Thompson.

“So we came up with the idea of putting together a professionally produced cookbook filled with recipes that have sentimental value for people; recipes their grandparents used to make, recipes they used to cook for their children or recipes that have been handed down over successive generations.

“There is a lot of cultural diversity among our residents and the recipes reflect that diversity. Our recipes range from Kotopoulo Kapama from Greece to Vindaloo from India to Pho from Vietnam and even the basic meatloaf and pavlova,” Ms Thompson says.

Construction of the community garden and outdoor kitchen facilities is underway with landscaping to continue in the coming months. The finished space will encourage social engagement and connections between residents, family members and local communities.

From Seed to Table will be officially launched by Uniting AgeWell executive director and chief executive officer Valerie Lyons with a special lunch on Friday, November 20.

The cookbook is now available at $25 a copy, with all proceeds going towards the community garden.

To order your copy, contact the team at Noble Park on 03 9554 0717.