A Korean Christmas Luncheon was held at the Mitchell and Area Seniors Recreation Centre on Saturday to celebrate a year of cultural cooking classes.

Local Organizer Jane Penner says back in March Olivia Do from Diversity Times, a Korean-English publication in Winnipeg, approached them and asked them if they were interested in holding cultural cooking classes to promote seniors well-being and volunteerism.

"We benefit from the fellowship of getting together and from different cultures and I think really we have had a lot of new foreigners that have come into our country and we have made them feel welcome here at Mitchell Seniors Centre and I think it really opened our eyes to how we really are all the same and we all love to eat."

Penner says since March, they have held monthly cultural cooking classes that have covered a number of dishes from Nova Scotia, Filipino, and Mennonite backgrounds. She notes for their Christmas party Olivia Do joined them and provided food.

Do says they are able to put these classes on thanks to a government grant. She notes approximately 60 seniors attended the Korean Luncheon on Saturday and many of them had never tried Korean food.

"We brought the Korean food because Jane asked me because she doesn’t know about Korea. I told Jane we want to know each other, Korean food is my heritage so I wanted to bring Korean food for other people who don’t know about Korean Food. Sharing food is very important for everybody."

In addition to sharing food and fellowship, there was a presentation on Korean culture and even a short impromptu speech on the importance of diversity of MLA Kelvin Goertzen.

Do says similar cultural cooking classes for seniors were also held in Altona and Winnipeg throughout the year and they hope to put together a cookbook with the recipes that were used in the classes in all three locations. She adds all of the money raised at the Korean Luncheon on Saturday will go to the Mitchell Seniors Centre.

Olivia Do