Free cooking class and dinner offered in Dayton

The public is invited to join dietitian Kim Mason and chef Cynthia Kroon for a healthy cooking demonstration, followed by dinner, at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 22, at the Dayton Valley Community Center, 170 Pike St., Dayton. Bring a friend or meet news ones at the free class. There’s no need to register, and everyone is welcome.

During 2018 cooking classes, Kim and Cynthia will focus on nutrition and the brain in a series they’re calling “Mood and Food.”

The first cooking class of the year will include helpful tips on improving memory through how you eat. During this month’s demonstration, attendees will learn how to make tuna patties; yellow potato baked fires, lemon Dijon green beans, and apple dessert with oatmeal.

Participants also will receive printed handouts about keeping a healthy brain, and Mason will explain the affects of advanced glycation end products.

On the third Monday of the month, Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey Counties hosts a free cooking demo and dinner featuring healthy menu possibilities that incorporate varying foods that USDA Commodities and HCC’s Dayton Food Pantry offer. For instance, this month’s recipes include onions, potatoes, cilantro, canned green beans, and canned tuna.

The monthly cooking classes are one part of the region’s Healthy Food Hub, an effort to increase access to and demand for affordable, locally and sustainably grown food. Healthy Communities promotes a number of initiatives and programs such as school and community gardens and hoop houses; gardening classes and clubs; summer farmers markets; school salad bars and cooking classes using school garden produce; volunteer-powered food pantries in Silver Springs, Yerington, and Dayton; Community Roots and Shoots nonprofit gift and garden center; and community cooking classes and wellness support groups that emphasize affordable, nutritious, healthy menus.

For information, call Healthy Communities at 775-246-7550, or see healthycomm.org.