Families from around the Helston area had the opportunity to learn about the benefits of slow cooking on a shoestring with an event at the Light and Life centre.

The Energy Fit Kitchens event, which was run by charities the Lizard CHILD trust and Community Energy Plus, sought to provide a fun and engaging way to teach low income families ways of managing their energy and cooking costs, and each participant also left with a free slow cooker.

Jodie Finbow, community projects manager at the Lizard Child Trust, said: "It went really well, it was a really successful day.

"We had 47 participants turn up, and they all went home with a slow cooker and a meal that they had cooked, and a bag of food from the food bank, and energy monitors for their homes.

"There were people from Camborne all the way down to the Lizard."

The event was aimed at educating people, but also at raising the profile of the Helston Food Bank, which provided all of the food - except for the meat - for everybody to cook a healthy and tasty family meal. The group also gave everybody a hot lunch of soup, and Sainsbury's provided some extras including mince pies.

Jodie said: "It was about building community knowledge, showing people the services in Helston that they can use. Helping people to lift themselves out of a cycle."

She thanked Ruth McGurk and her "fantastic helpers" at the foodbank who had worked "tirelessly" to support the event.

There will be a similar event taking place at the Dracaena Centre in Falmouth on Monday, January 18, and another in Camborne at a date to be confirmed.