Food project takes shape

By Casey Neill

Food grown in Cardinia Shire is transported into Melbourne, processed and brought back out for sale.
The Cardinia Food Movement is hoping to change this.
Sustain: The Australian Food Network project co-ordinator Tanya Massy and Pieta Bucello, Cardinia Shire Council’s healthy communities co-ordinator, said the idea started to take shape in November last year.
It’s a partnership between the council and Sustain, plus other community networks like the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation and Monash Health.
It’s looking at health and well-being issues facing the community.
“The only way to tackle such a big issue is to bring all the stakeholders together to generate some local solutions to the local problems,” Tanya said.
Her role kicked off in February.
“We’re just trying to build understanding across everyone we’re working with of what’s actually happening – where is the food system in Cardinia right now?” she said.
Pieta said: “And what do we want it to look like in 10 years’ time?”
Tanya said answering these questions was important “before we actually start to make some interventions”.
Pieta said they’d be building on great things already happening in the community.
Tanya said it wasn’t about Sustain telling the Cardinia community “this is the solution”.
“In April we ran a series of three workshops in Kooweerup, Pakenham and Gembrook,” she said.
“We brought 10 to 15 people together from across the community to help us get a local food picture.
“That’s what we’re using to generate what we’re calling the food profile.”
This will guide the project and provide a reference point for measuring change.
The first Cardinia Food Movement gathering will happen in July.
Baw Baw Food Movement participants will share their experiences, and everyone in the room will share thoughts to generate a collective vision.
More conversations will follow during August, September and October.
“We want to be building capacity in local food leaders to run a series of kitchen table conversations that are going to reach 1000 people across the shire,” Tanya said.
“We want to hear the specific issues they’re facing, and what they want to see locally in the food system.”
Tanya said there’d be a two-day Cardinia food summit in November featuring a range of speakers.
“That will be the official launch of the project,” she said.
Pieta said: “We want to develop a local food strategy that’s formed by the people.”
“It’s really come about because we previously were doing some work through the council on Healthy Food Connect, which was a program as part of the Healthy Together initiative.
“That finished and we recognised that there’s still a need to be doing this work and there’s still a long way to go to improve health and well-being and access to nutritious food in our community.
“The council saw it as a priority, really.
“We partnered with Sustain because they’ve got expertise in bringing people together and understanding the food system.
“It’s very much a collective approach.
“We’re providing that space for the community and partners to have that discussion and come up with the solutions.”
Pieta said there were some food box schemes but “it’s not actually that easy for people to access nutritious food that’s grown locally”.
“Some areas are better than others,” she said.
“We don’t have local supply chains and local distribution.
“Working families have really long commutes.
“It’s much easier to go through a drive-through on the way home.
“They have less time to prepare meals.
“We’re trying to look at how we make that easier.
“How can you actually provide food to workplaces?
“How do you bring food to them instead of them having to go to the supermarket?”
Schools could play a key role, too.
“Food is a great way of bringing people together and we have so many new people moving into the shire,” Pieta said.
“Food’s a great way to strengthen that social cohesion as well.”
She said there were also the environmental impacts of eating local food, and fresh food as opposed to pre-packaged food.
“There are potentially some economic benefits to start-up, new businesses to support the localised food system,” she said.
Pieta said an important part of the project was generating support that could act as motivation.
“I think it’s really tough for small businesses to get off the ground,” she said.
“It’s not easy to set up a food business.
“I think by having a community of people that support this sort of work, it just provides that supportive environment for people to try things.
“We need to see some innovation in this space.
“There’s so much potential and opportunity here.
“I think sometimes it’s so easy to focus on the things that aren’t going well in a community.
“We’re at a point where we need to focus on what’s good in our community.
“Food’s a way to bring people together.”
Pieta said cutting down the supply chain should mean more money for farmers.
Tanya said they’d met with some cafe operators in Emerald and spoken about offering local jobs to local people.
“I feel like we’ve still got a lot of producers to reach,” she said.
“I was involved with the South East Food Hub in its first year.
“I’m reactivating some of those conversations.
“Those are the farmers who are really passionate about being able to supply more to their local community.
“With those farms it has been really positive.
“We’re still engaging a lot of farmers as we go.
“Generally we want to be connecting more with local schools, finding other ways to get produce out to the community.”
Tanya said the local farmers had amazed her.
“Despite how hard it is for farmers these days, there’s still that real community vision and spirit,” she said.
The Cardinia Food Movement launch event will take place on 25 July. Get in touch via Facebook or Instagram to get involved.