The Healthy New Communities Cookbook is a nutrition and healthy eating resource designed in partnership with multicultural communities through Metro South Health’s Community Champions Cultural Cooking Program.
Developed by Metro South Health’s Health Equity and Access Team, the cookbook supports healthy eating, nutrition literacy and cooking confidence through a collection of affordable, family-friendly and culturally relevant recipes.
Co-designed with Community Champions and program participants from refugee backgrounds, the resource reflects community preferences for simple English, pictorial recipe instructions and easy-to-find ingredients, making it accessible to people with varying levels of English literacy and cooking experience.
The primary audience is families from refugee backgrounds, while the cookbook is also intended to benefit the broader community by promoting healthy food choices, increased vegetable consumption and the continuation of positive cultural food traditions.
Background
The Healthy New Communities Cookbook is the output of a community-led nutrition literacy initiative co-designed by newly arrived refugee families and supported by a Senior Community Nutritionist from Metro South Health.
The cookbook complements the Community Champions Cultural Cooking Program, which trains women from refugee backgrounds in healthy eating, cooking skills and food safety, enabling them to facilitate regular community cooking sessions. While the program primarily operates across the Logan area within the Metro South Health region, the Healthy New Communities Cookbook has been designed as a resource that can be enjoyed and used by individuals and families more broadly.
Resource submitted by Kym Perkins, Senior Community Nutritionist, Metro South Health
