Geoff Broadfoot says it is time for the members of the Narooma Men’s Shed to have “somewhere to settle down”.
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“This is our main concern at present.”
The lease for the current men’s shed is due to expire soon, and the sheddies said they were keen to locate in a central location.
“We would like to control our own destiny with a well-sited, dedicated shed; where we can run all our endeavors from,” Mr Broadfoot said.
“If we did have that, we would be able to provide more for the community and provide stability to our membership.”
Mr Broadfoot said he had been at the shed for about seven years.
“I was a school teacher – at Bodalla – I would be at the school by half past seven and get home at six at night, five days a week,” he said.
On retirement, Mr Broadfoot sat around for six months: “totally bored.”
“All I was doing was playing golf once or twice per week … I joined the men’s shed and have enjoyed it ever since.
Mr Broadfoot always had an interest in furniture restoration and on joining the shed he tool that on, “revamping chairs and cupboards and what not.”
But one thing led to another and he ended up running the shed’s cooking program.
“We had a grant to teach people how to cook," Mr Broadfoot said.
“We invited chefs from around the district to come in and cook us a meal. We would have two or three sheddies work with each chef and learn what to do.
“This went on, once a month, for over a year with more than a dozen chefs in … We still have a promise from other chefs to do more.”
Mr Broadfoot said the program was important because some sheddies “live by themselves and often there is not a lot of cooking being done”. He said the monthly cook-ups fed 25 to 35 people and are so much more than sausages on the barbecue.
“The last one was red pork, beef stew and salads. We do soup lunches, all different things, lots of comfort foods during winter.
“If there is anything left over from our monthly cook-ups – which we aim for – we freeze it and send it along with some of our less able cooks.”