Sauté and Save is an event tailored to low income families that get limited food options from local food pantries or just can’t afford to purchase a wide variety of foods. Sauté and Save is a free event that is presented through Green County’s Food Security Partnership with the intent to educate people in food preparation, food safety and gardening along with demonstrations.

The first of four sessions took place Mondayday, April 3,, and featured a demonstration by the Penn State Cooperative Extension on healthy cooking. The Penn State Cooperative Extension will also be presenting at the second session April 10.

Each of these sessions is from p.m. to .. at1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Carmichael Arbors in Fairdale, Pennsylvaniaennsylvania.

These sessions have been occurring for three years, and each year the sessions move locations in order to help different groups of people in need. There is a set of sessions in the fall and the currently happening sessions that take place in the spring. Last fall the sessions took place at Gateway Senior Housing, and now it they have moved to Carmichael Arbors this spring in order to help teach people who don’t have all of the under-appreciated appliances many students have.

“Many of these people don’t have access to a stove or a toaster or other cooking appliances,” said Maribeth Tarpley-Garrett, an organizer of the event. “We want to show them how to make food in a healthy matter with the tools they have available to them – many of these people only have access to a microwave.”

At the April 17 session of Sauté and Save, Caitlyn Carlisle of Farmer’s Insurance will be the presenter, and Dolly Throckmorton will be the presenter for the April 24 session.

A point of focus in each of these sessions is teaching people how to cook in a way that sustains their health but also caters to shopping smart due to low budgets. They also teach those in attendance about the resources available to them and how to sign up for food pantries.

Each session also includes a step-by-step demonstration of a recipe that even includes tips about how to deal with cooking raw meat and how it can contaminate anything it comes in contact with.

At the conclusion of each session, each person in attendance receives a copy of the recipe they witnessed a demonstration of and are asked to fill out a survey based on the food they eat, how they cook it and where they eat if they don’t cook.

“We just want to help these people know that if you get two pounds of ground meat, you don’t have to make a hamburger with it, you can make a meat loaf or a casserole,” said Tarpley-Garrett. “,” said Tarpley-Garrett. “We also want them to make sure they are handling their food in the most sanitary and safe manner as well.”.”