A FREE six-week cookery course to teach residents to cook a range of basic meals — while covering the top tips that help reduce food waste at home — is being run by Devon County Council.

A ‘DIY Dinner’ course will start in Okehampton next Wednesday (February 12) in order to fulfil the council’s commitment to help communities reduce food waste and carbon emissions in support of the Devon Climate Declaration.

Each course will be led by an experienced community food worker and will include recipes from Recycle Devon’s newly launched cookbook ‘Have Your Food and Eat It’. Every week, course participants will take home a meal for four that they have cooked.

In addition, the sessions will give guidance on how to reduce food waste, for instance, through meal planning, proper storage and understanding the difference between ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates.

Councillor Andrea Davis, Devon County Council’s cabinet member for infrastructure and waste, said: ‘We’re excited to be able to offer these pioneering courses to householders in each of Devon’s local authority areas.

‘Research shows that 30 per cent of Devon’s dustbins is made up of food waste, despite most areas having a food waste recycling collection.

‘Of course, it’s better for the environment and your pocket that we eat the that food we buy so that it doesn’t end up as waste. According to the national food waste prevention campaign Love Food Hate Waste the average family of four are throwing away up to £70 a month as food waste, most of which is avoidable.’

Teacher on the course, Anna Thomson from Nourishing Families, said: ‘I’m really looking forward to teaching one of the courses and sharing some simple but very adaptable recipes.

Food waste is a major contributor to climate change, so throughout the course we’ll be exploring delicious and easy ways to make the most of the food that we buy.’

The courses follow a successful funding bid by Devon County Council to Interreg Europe, which has enabled all of the course costs to be covered, including the ingredients.

The course in Okehampton begins on Wednesday, February 12 and will be held from 4pm to 6pm.

The closing date for applicants is Tuesday, February 11, contact Emma on 01392 383159 or via [email protected] to book your place.