General News
7 November, 2025
Garden to Gourmet succeeds
As Maryborough Community House (MCH) wraps up their Garden to Gourmet program, the group have completed their mission of teaching participants to maximise meals at the lowest cost.
According to the program’s leader Belinda Fabry, the much loved sessions were well received by multiple members of the community.
“MCH acquired funding through the government to teach and enhance cooking skills for participants, the course also focused on teaching students to stretch their grocery dollar further during these economically difficult times,” she said.
“And a lot of people are kinaesthetic learners, they learn by doing.”
The sessions guided participants through creating meals that were healthy and wholesome, often from scratch, with the intention that regardless of budget and confidence in the kitchen, anyone can still create impressive meals of any quantity.
This program was also conducted using produce grown on site at MCH, combined with items provided from Bendigo Food Share.
Program participant Martin Mackay said each session was met with various milestones and brand new skills.
“There have been different techniques and skills I wasn’t aware of before. I’ve used different spices and sauces I hadn’t yet come across or wasn’t familiar with,” he said.
“So it’s expanded my repertoire and the choice of flavours and textures that I hadn’t practiced before, now I will be.”
During the program, participants delved into dishes like stirfry, meat balls, pizzas, tuna fillets, cupcakes and dumplings from scratch.
Ms Fabry said the Garden to Gourmet program was also a valued space of social interactions and routine, where participants could extend what ever they already knew about preparing meals.
“It’s really about how to take what we know, and what can we use to make it better. Things need to be easy, freezable, doable, cheap and yummy, using things grown in the garden,” she said.
“I really loved the class cause it was small. It means being able to just make things, and spend some time together. To work with the community in such a heartfelt way is so important.”
Those involved in the classes hope to see a similar program of its kind emerge in the future.
“If you enjoy food, you get an extension of the cuisines that you may or may not be familiar with, you learn about different sauces and different additives you can use. There are different ways of doing the same thing,” Mr Mackay said.
The program was made possible following a $10,000 grant from the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal that MCH received in June this year.