Australians are increasingly struggling with the cost of food which can affect healthy eating. Reporter Selina Ross met one dietician who is helping people learn how to cook nutritious and affordable food.
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00:00 This community cooking class is helping create culinary confidence.
00:07 Nalini Burge has always loved cooking, but now she's learning new recipes that use more affordable ingredients.
00:16 Smells good too.
00:17 We cook here and then when I go to the supermarket it's always in my mind and then I go and grab those things and I prepare a dish and it's so helpful to me.
00:28 The dietician-led class called Gather, Cook, Grow aims to help people learn to prepare healthy and affordable food.
00:36 The sessions are run out of several neighbourhood houses around Greater Hobart and focus on getting the most out of ingredients while maximising flavour.
00:44 They might have never been taught or shown or stick with what they kind of know and feel really comfortable and safe doing and know that it's affordable because it can be,
00:55 food can be stressful, particularly if it feels unaffordable.
01:00 It's helped Fleur Williams discover the benefit of meal planning and sticking to the shopping list and bulking out dishes with lentils or chickpeas instead of meat.
01:08 Different options in pantries, substitutes and stuff like that because I hadn't learnt all that type of stuff until I come along here.
01:17 While programs like this are helping Australians to eat more affordably, food security experts say the government needs to do more to ease grocery bill pressures for vulnerable households.
01:28 Food affordability is getting worse in Australia.
01:31 Foodbank reported more than a third of households experienced moderate to severe food insecurity last year, such as forgoing a daily meal in order to afford heating or rent.
01:41 We found this before the COVID pandemic, before prices went up, so we'd like to see the government increase the rates of payment so that everyone in Australia can afford a healthy diet.
01:53 Hoping Tuesday's federal budget brings some relief.
01:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]