It’s here!  Fair Food Week August 19 – 25 is a week of events that will celebrate the work of Australia’s fair food leaders.

Coordinated by the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA), to support the Peoples’ Food Plan, Australia’s first-ever Fair Food Week shines a light on our new story of food. The crowd-sourced week demonstrates the initiative of citizens, organisations and small business in creating events that convey the message of fair access to good food for all, an abundant future for Australia’s farmers who produce what we eat and the sovereignty of free choice over the foods we want as the eaters of that food.
Over 90 events are being staged across the country: forums, workshops, speakers, films, farmers’ fairs, food swaps, community garden and farm tours, and more. The powerful response to the first Fair Food Week reflects renewed community interest in what we eat, how it is produced and how it gets to us.

Here in northern Victoria we have already had free food at the Seymour Community Market, the Red Gum Food Group Koondrook Barham Local Food Challenge has kicked off, Growing Abundance in Castlemaine has a Food for Thought lunch coming up on Tuesday, on Thursday Growing Change and the Bendigo Community Food Network are hosting a community film night with Nourish the documentary and Fresh the movie, the Bowden Street Women are gathering on Friday night and on Saturday the week rounds out with the Trentham Growers Cookers and Eaters dinner.

Fair Food Week was organised because Australia’s food economy is changing in ways that do not always benefit farmers, our food processing industry or eaters. There are concerns over how food is processed, the excessive market power of supermarkets, how cheap food imports with unknown health impacts force Australian farmers off the land and Australian food processors to close, and over biosafety. Plus both farmers and farm workers and food processors should be able to enjoy healthy, good and fair working conditions.

Then there is the link between food advertising and the national epidemic of diet-related ill health, highlighting a need for change that is obvious and overwhelming. Countering these trends is an upsurge of interest in our food future and of initiatives by small to medium scale business, social enterprise and communities in co-creating a better food system with increased access to healthy foods.

Supporting regional food economies with the employment opportunities they bring is not only desirable, but that it is achievable too. Food fairness is the real quadruple bottom line: it looks after our health and well-being, it cares for the land and water, generates decent jobs and conditions for producers and contributes to prosperous and resilient communities.

Communities where there is fair access to good, tasty food for the thousands of Australians and their children living on low incomes.

So during Fair Food Week, we can all go out and enjoy food produced fairly and realise that fair food can nourish all people, support communities, keep growers profitable and nurture the environment.

A recent community event celebrated School Food Security Awards and leadership in community food initiatives.

The Goulburn Valley Food Cooperative ‘s food security event was combined with the launch of the Australian Grown Food Company’s first locally made pasta and sauce range. It was the culmination of much hard work and inspiration in the Goulburn Valley region. Why is this noteworthy? Because the response of the local community of Girgarre, faced with the impact of Heinz closing their tomato sauce production in the region created the potential for rural catastrophe. The fact that champions emerged to consider and develop an approach to turn disaster into opportunity speaks to the spirit and creative leadership abilities of those who did so.

So on a stormy day the Kyabram event saw people attend from far and wide. Speaking at the School Food Security Awards part of the program I noted how society is now facing serious issues in planning for the future of food production and distribution in Australia. The ability of the community to access healthy and nutritious food into the future requires a strategy that places the community at the centre of deciding what food we want produced and where and how we want it produced.

The question that is asked to assess food security is ‘Have you run out of food or the money to buy it in the last 12 months?’ but it doesn’t address the quality of food that we need to thrive. In Victoria around 6% of people say yes to this question and it is higher in regional areas.

The situation in the Goulburn Valley has highlighted how important food growing and manufacturing is to regional communities. The Australian Government has a new National Food Plan that wants us to be the food bowl of Asia, but it says little about the opportunities for youth to be part of the careers of the future in food production. However there is huge potential in regional communities for those career choices.

There are already challenges for our younger generation with low rates of fruit and vegetable intake, a rapidly escalating obesity rate and rocketing incidence of type 2 diabetes and allergies.  But the exciting thing is that once more people are rediscovering an interest in food growing and this is occurring across many different groups in the community. One of the largest groups is the younger generation. Kids are starting to learn about food growing in school gardens thanks to leaders like Alice Waters in the US, Jamie Oliver in the UK and Stephanie Alexander in Australia.

At a government level here there is support for programs such as the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program and Healthy Communities Initiatives such as Healthy Together Bendigo that includes a focus on supporting schools. There are currently 24 schools and early childhood centres in Bendigo that have some form of food growing activity, and that is but one regional community. Programs such as the Edible Classrooms program plus lots of smaller school based efforts all revolve around the principle of grow, pick and eat.

We know that when people grow their own food they increase their intake of fruit and vegetables and that is very important in promoting health and preventing illness later in life.

When food literacy is taught as a life skill in schools the ability to plan, grow, shop and cook food increases and we see more resilient and healthy adults which can only be a good thing for the future of our communities.

The Kyabram event showcased the ten successful schools and their projects to be funded, including: Numurkah Secondary college, Mansfield Secondary College, McGuire College Shepparton, St Augustine’s College Kyabram, St Mary’s Primary School Rushworth, Wilmot Road Primary School, Lancaster Primary School, Murchison Primary School, Undera Primary School and Verney Road School Shepparton.

We heard from students of plans for state of the art commercial kitchen centres, food security education projects, a Vegie Patch to Dinner Plate program, a Food Revolution including permaculture, low food miles and ethical food choices, a food science kitchen, school garden establishment, including chooks and orchards and bush tucker gardens, the Undera master chef event, creation of gardener starter kits, and breakfast, kitchen garden, cooking and harvest day celebrations planned. There was even a presentation on the history of scarecrows! The pride, enthusiasm and excitement of the kids presenting their ideas and projects was something to behold. With this sort of activity the food system may be in good hands in the future.

The lucky schools who received grants to assist them on the path to food security are creating history in the Goulburn Valley region and the Goulburn Valley Food Coop is showing tremendous vision and leadership in encouraging such an inspiring range of school based projects.  It’s also an opportunity for all of the schools to keep communicating their successes and create a regional success story that can provide inspiration to others. Perhaps a virtual regional schools food hub could be one outcome?