LIVERMORE FALLS – Cooking tips, food safety, smart shopping and budgeting are a few of the topics that will be discussed in the free six-week Cooking Matters class starting Monday, Oct. 20, at Spruce Mountain Adult Education, 25 Cedar St.

Cooking Matters seeks to inspire families to buy and cook healthy food. The course aims to show people that it is possible to eat healthy meals even on a tight budget. Cooking Matters has been recognized by the USDA and by Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! for excellence in nutrition education. For more than 20 years, Cooking Matters has provided hands-on cooking and nutrition classes to low-income people at risk of hunger.

Each class will include hands-on learning, group discussion and nutrition information. The course is taught by a nutritionist and a cooking enthusiast and will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. every Monday for six weeks.

The course is sponsored by Healthy Community Coalition of Greater Franklin County with support from Western ME Family Health Center. For more information or to register for Cooking Matters, contact Jessica Veilleux, class coordinator, at 485-1549. The course is free and open to the public.

Cooking Matters is a national program of Share Our Strength. In Maine, Cooking Matters is implemented through a partnership between Good Shepherd Food Bank and Maine SNAP-Ed. Maine SNAP-Ed is funded by the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which is administered by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and implemented through a contract with the University of New England.

For more information on Western ME Family Health Center, visit www.WesternCHC.org. For more information on the coalition, visit www.fchn.org/hcc.