In a move to stir up healthy eating habits and improve their ability to plate up a delicious meal, the Shed is running a five week 'Cooking for One or Two Program', funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA).

But before the soon-to-be masterchefs get their hands on the utensils, they spend the first half of their sessions learning food theory with dietitian and cooking facilitator Christina Batey.

"We cover different topics from food safety, to malnutrition, general healthy eating and cooking on a budget, then we do a cooking section where they learn new ideas," Ms Batey said.

"The general idea is to improve their confidence in the kitchen most of all and expose them to a few different ingredients they maybe wouldn't try otherwise," she said.

Ms Batey said the course has been designed to be budget friendly, nutritious and easy to prepare.

"I've designed this course around their cooking knowledge, I've given them a bit of a challenge in the recipes which I think is giving them a sense of accomplishment, a little bit more confidence and developing technique," she said.

Ms Batey said it was important to provide skills and knowledge for people to be able to eat well in their older years.

"Malnutrition in our older people is a really large problem ... it's so important because it affects clinical outcomes in terms of what your recovery is going to look like [when facing a health issue]," she said.

She said it was also a social connection for the members to have a laugh and learn new things.

Men's Shed committee member Dennis Moore is one of the 12 participants and said he was enjoying the sessions.

"I will certainly be taking some of them [skills] home and I'm open to learning new ideas for myself," he said.

He was also pleased to see the program running for the older residents of the area which reflected how much the Shed has grown since its early days.

"To have this program and see the shed grown from where we started out in the old fire station in William Street to where we are now, is quite unbelievable," he said.

Former Men's Shed president Robert Bull said he was very supportive of the program.

"It's an extension of the activities that we run in the shed along with other activities going on, it's a program that we are very supportive of and we thought it was a good idea to get our members and members of the RSL sub-branch together," he said.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: