Rachel Hagan, Yorke Peninsula Country Times

With high-cost-of-living pressures and increasingly demanding lifestyles, eating healthy on a budget can be hard to prioritise, but chef Jo Minks says that, once you know how to use ingredients effectively, anyone can do it.

As a part of the AGL Wattle Point Community Fund, administered by the Yorke Peninsula Council, the SYP Community Hub delivered three workshops on creating low-cost and healthy food ideas.

Chef Minks said some of the sessions booked out within hours, showing how needed this knowledge was in her community.

“The overarching feedback that I get from across all different demographics of the community is that they want the kind of workshop where we are not reinventing the wheel, but we are able to provide some relief from cost-of-living,” Ms Minks said.

“There’s a lot of people caring for others in the community in different capacities, and it’s about making those dollars stretch.

“When there is a shoestring budget, it is really easy to not have balanced meals.”

The three workshops covered food preservation using a dehydrator, making use of seasonal produce such as apples, and getting the most from a shopping list.

The most popular session was Seven Meals, One Shopping List.

However, Ms Minks said she could not help herself when it came to food waste, stretching the seven meals into 15 with a bit more thought.

One of the workshop goals was to demonstrate that simple budget-friendly meals could be just as quick to prepare as packet mac and cheese or microwaveable options.

Ms Minks clearly succeeded because attendees were amazed by her speedy creations, ranging from hearty dinners to light sweet treats, such as crepes.

“I overheard a woman say as she looked over at the ingredients ‘I’ve got all of that stuff in my pantry’, which was the perfect statement because that’s my goal,” Ms Minks said.

“I want people to be able to open their freezer drawer and utilise the two sheets of puff pastry or half a packet of mince that they have left because it’s about sustainability.

“Sustainability in terms of food wastage and sustainability in terms of finances.”

Ms Minks said society was changing. With most adults in a household working, people often opt for cheap and unhealthy convenience meals because they already feel overwhelmed.

“What I hear time and time again is some of those traditional skills are not being shared as much in the home, and it’s not a good or a bad thing — it’s just that times are different,” she said.

“But we’ve identified a need, and I’ve got that skillset to impart that knowledge, so if I can share that knowledge it becomes theirs, and then everyone is empowered.”

Workshop participant Judy Hill said the workshop was extremely beneficial, and helped her learn many tips to keep her shopping list down.

“I didn’t know you could still do so much, while still being sustainable,” Ms Hill said.

“And how to do things differently, so you don’t have that waste.

“This has been fantastic for the community — I don’t know what we’d do without Jo.”

Chef Mink’s kitchen series has been a part of the SYP Hub’s ongoing Ageing Well events, with more planned for later this year.

SYP Hub coordinator Kate Martin said the hub was also set to host an Ageing Well Forum, and a tour to Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park.

“We would be happy to hear from anyone with ideas for events as part of this project or more generally,” Ms Martin said.

This article appeared in Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 13 May 2025.