The Rest Haven church in Sidney is blessed with amazing cooks. Our Sabbath potlucks are well known and attended—vegetarian cooking at its very best. When discussing options of how to reach out to our community, cooking classes were a natural choice. In late February we held a wonderful health seminar weekend with Beverley Edwards-Haines, a registered dietitian and speaker for the Live Healthy program by It Is Written Canada. Edwards-Haines demonstrated to our church and community guests the simplicity and health benefits of plant-based eating in an interesting and engaging manner. She wrapped up the weekend with a cooking class that was very well attended and packed with delicious food, fun, and nutritional gems.
Continuing the momentum gained by the health seminar, in April we presented the second in a series of vegetarian cooking classes scheduled for this year. Our ladies walked our guests through preparing a five-course meal consisting of an appetizer of cannellini bean dip on cucumber chips, a grape and broccoli salad, vegan lentil roast, rosemary roasted sweet potatoes, and a scrumptious dessert of vegan chocolate mousse with whipped coconut cream.
After the cooking demonstrations, we enjoyed sharing the meal and mingling with our guests. Everything was delicious, and the fellowship was great. Many people from the community attended, some for the first time, others having attended the health seminar. We also shared our health-and-wellness literature and other nutritional information.
With the input we gained from a short survey that the attendees filled out at registration, we will be introducing other health-related activities, such as walking and cycling groups. Our hope is to bless our community neighbours in a relaxed, fun, and healthy way.
