Food, glorious food – it may not have been enough for young Oliver Twist, but it would definitely have been grown fairly locally, processed less and travelled far fewer food kilometres than most porridge served up these days.
Hume council recently held a food summit, bringing together producers, distributors, retailers, community organisations, schools, service providers and residents to find ways to shape a better food future for the city.
Dianella and Sunbury community health centres support the Healthy Together Hume initiative, which works with community groups, governments, schools and workplaces to spread the word about growing local and eating healthy local food. The program is jointly funded by state and federal governments.
City communities director Margarita Caddick points out that Hume has a vibrant, multicultural and abundant food history.
“But our growing population, rapidly changing environment and fast-paced lives have significantly reduced our ability to produce and access healthy, affordable food,” she said.
The summit focused on the growing, making, distributing, selling and eating of healthy and sustainable food; and how to tackle local challenges and tap into opportunities to build a thriving local food economy while cutting food waste and boosting health.
The summit featured Dr Nick Rose, national co-ordinator of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance, a member of the People’s Food Plan national steering team and project co-ordinator at Deakin University’s Food Alliance.
“My role in this is to work with communities and organisations around Australia to co-create a vision and a practise of fair food systems,” Dr Rose said.
He said food sovereignty embodied a food and farming system based on connection, rather than one based on separation and alienation.
The next Healthy Together Hume event is Fresh Food Week at Broadmeadows Shopping Centre, from August 11 to 17, with free cooking demonstrations from 11am–2pm each day.
Hume’s Meet+Eat project, developed by community and media arts organisation Curious Works and supported by VicHealth and the Scanlon Foundation, has released the latest episode in its documentary series that is using the act of sharing meals as a way to get people from different backgrounds to sit down and share their stories.
