Meal of the month

As part of the Food and Water for Life project, Dharriwaa Elders Group and Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service staff recently ran its fourth Meal of the Month at the Walgett IGA. The Food and Water for Life project is a collaboration between the Dharriwaa Elders Group, Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service, The George Institute for Global Health and the UNSW Yuwaya Ngarra-li team and aims to enable community-led sustainable food and water initiatives that are run by and employ Aboriginal people and ensure healthy drinking water and fresh nutritious food produced locally.

Coordinated by Trish Tonkin, DEG’s Food and Water for Life Project Officer, and Annie Deane from the Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service, Meal of the Month is a fun and engaging way to share low-cost healthy recipes and ingredients. Meal of the Month recipes are designed to be healthy, nutritious, seasonal and budget conscious and all ingredients are available at the Walgett IGA supermarket. Shoppers at the IGA can sample the food, take home a recipe card and cook the meal at home, then use a picture of the meal to enter a competition to win all the ingredient for the next Meal of the Month.

Paresh Patel, Walgett IGA Supermarket Manager, generously supports the program by providing a $50 IGA voucher each month for the competition winner. IGA also offer monthly specials on key recipe ingredients, which greatly assists in the monthly meal’s affordability.  DEG offers an additional prize to any community member that takes a recipe and information sheet who can then go into a draw to win one of three food packs that contain all of the recipe ingredients for that particular Meal of the Month.

Annie and Trish say: “We are passionate about providing a platform for the people of Walgett to embrace, learn and enjoy creating low cost, healthy meals at home.”