A large group of people will find out on Thursday when Wharf Road and Hungry Duck chef David Campbell turns his talent from high end to the other end.

The Red Cross and SALT Ministries challenged him to conjure up the meal deal as part of Anti-Poverty Week.

“It’s a good way to highlight that people can afford to eat good, healthy food.  It just takes a bit of cooking and some love,” Mr Campbell said.

He assures the diners it will be cheap, tasty and will roughly follow the food guide pyramid to tick the healthy box.

“I’m going to do a Vietnamese-style pho soup made on beef brisket slow baked for five hours,” Mr Campbell said.

“I’m making wholemeal flour dumplings to help make it filling.

“We are also doing a couple of other goodies to compliment the $2 meal,” he said.

Mr Campbell said he would be sourcing what ingredients he can locally such as grains leftover from Hopdog BeerWorks brewing process, oranges from Nowra Farmers Market that are too damaged to be on display and Berry Sourdough Café’s brioche that was too old for them to sell.

Entre will be supplied by Wes Murphy who is cooking healthy pizzas in his Wandering Woodfire Oven.

Red Cross regional manager Judy Harper said food insecurity was a significant issue facing many families in the Shoalhaven.

“This is the reality and during Anti-Poverty Week, October 12 to 18, the focus will be on making our community stronger by fighting poverty in the Shoalhaven,” she said.

“Every week there are between 40 and 60 local residents who come to SALT Ministries in Bomaderry for a free lunch and pick up bread and clothes while they are there.

“We chose SALT because that was a place where people already come together for a community lunch and it was a venue that had a kitchen and space to cater for 100 people,” she said.

“One key message I want to get across is while there are big issues like unemployment and a lack of housing that people don’t feel they have control of, don’t forget about keeping an eye on people who might not be travelling ok in their life.

“People living in poverty become excluded in their community, then nutrition often suffers and that is an area where people can help out.”