When veterans and their families register for Soldier On’s Nourish Body & Mind – Enhancing Veteran Wellness Through Culinary Skills and Group Cooking Workshops, they can look forward to accessing a program that delivers practical support and information designed to help them boost their culinary skills and knowledge. But the program also aims to improve their general social, physical, and emotional wellbeing.
Ideal ingredients for social connections
Due to the transient nature of training and deployment, veterans and their families face many challenges, including limited access to nutritional education, culinary skills and social connection, as well as concerns around food security. Nourish Body & Mind offers an opportunity to address these issues by providing practical, sustainable workshops and resources to enhance overall wellbeing.
The initiative – made possible by grant funding from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) – is designed to cater to the specific needs of the veteran community and deliver a culinary wellness program that has the capacity to engage 100 veterans and their families in fun and helpful hands-on workshops run in conjunction with local chefs and nutritionists.
These events are being rolled out throughout the remainder of 2025 in a range of locations, including Brisbane/Sunshine Coast, Melbourne, NSW’s Hunter region, and Perth. An online-accessible version of the program will also enable 270
participants to connect conveniently in the virtual space. This accessibility will expand the reach of the family-friendly program and help ensure that even remote veteran families can benefit from the shared knowledge and available recipe resources. All hands-on and online activities will be measured with pre- and post-program feedback that will help support the successful roll-out of future programs.
From kitchen skills to community support: inside the Nourish Body & Mind program
‘In the Hunter region, we ran the OzHarvest NEST program provided by the Port Stephens Catchment Communities
for Children, delivered by the Newcastle University Nutritionist Team,’ says Soldier On Program and Engagement Officer Andrew Smith. ‘The OzHarvest NEST program is a six-week nutrition and health education program, teaching adults effortless ways to cook and eat healthily on a budget through a series of practical and fun workshops.
‘The evidence-based program improves personal health, addresses food insecurity, and is aligned with the Australian Dietary Guidelines. The friendly team of nutritionists and dietitians have worked with a group of mums with bubs from the Williamtown RAAF base to set realistic goals around healthy eating, which are reviewed and revised each week, so real and lasting change can be made.’
