ALDI has donated equipment worth £4,000 to Edinburgh College’s Professional Cookery department through a partnership that is also providing new opportunities for students to develop their skills.

The support from ALDI will benefit the kitchens at the college’s Milton Road Campus and has enabled the college to invest in equipment to aid students’ learning, including bowls, trays, table-top and hand mixers, small fridges and sauté pans. ALDI has also donated a TV to assist class learning.

Over the last two years, Edinburgh College’s Professional Cookery students have also been involved in the opening events at eight ALDI stores across Edinburgh, the Lothians and Fife. At the launches, students prepared 15,000 samples for customers to try. Using Scottish ingredients the students treated ALDI customers to snacks including mini pulled pork buns and gin and beetroot cured salmon, and handed out recipe cards.

Professional Cookery lecturer George Baker said: “This has been a fantastic experience for a lot of our first and second-year cookery students. They’ve had the chance to develop recipes and make some great food, and interact with our local communities. The students and lecturers have produced some outstanding dishes, which have had some amazing feedback from ALDI’s customers.

“ALDI has been a great supporter of the college and we really value this partnership. We’ve used their donations to install some more industry-standard equipment in our kitchens, so it’s making a real difference to students’ learning.”

Richard Holloway, regional managing director for Scotland, said: “Supporting local initiatives is hugely important to the team at ALDI. Our partnership with Edinburgh College has helped students to develop new skills and we really value the students’ contribution to our store opening events in the local area.”