- Title
- Food security and wellbeing project evaluation 2022-2023
- Creator
- Porter, Joanne; Simic, Megan; Miller, Elizabeth; Bransgrove, Natalie; Barbagallo, Michael; Peck, Blake; Unsworth, Carolyn; Hewitt, Alana; Soldatenko, Daria; Hualda, Luis; My, Sambath; Prokopiv, Valerie
- Date
- 2023
- Type
- Text; Technical report; Report
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/198199
- Identifier
- vital:18995
- Identifier
- ISSN:978-1-922874-17-7
- Identifier
-
https://doi.org/10.35843/FSWBPEV23
- Abstract
- Although the country is transitioning out of COVID-19 lockdowns and easing restrictions, Australians are now facing increased costs of living. Global political unrest, interest rate rises, and inflation have seen the prices of fuel, food and household bills surge, increasing the strain on individuals and families. Fruit and vegetables have seen cost increases by almost 7% from last year, with this figure only estimated to rise. During the same period, however, takeaway food prices increased marginally by 0.7%, potentially due to government subsidy and voucher systems introduced post COVID-19 lockdowns. The strain of food prices is felt even more greatly by those living in regional, rural and remote Australia, with prices increasing due to freight costs. The Morwell Neighbourhood House (MNH) Food Bank provides emergency relief without requiring an appointment and is unrestricted by postcode or healthcare card status. The Food Bank is supported by St Vinnies Morwell, which provides $12,000 annually towards the cost of food, and by numerous community organisations, individuals and businesses. Demand for the Food Bank has increased steadily and particularly so during the COVID-19 pandemic. The immediate precursor to the People’s Kitchen was a 2019 project named Cooking for a Purpose. That involved GippsTAFE VCAL students preparing nutritious frozen meals using ingredients provided by MNH. The availability of frozen home-cooked meals has ensured that Food Bank clients have at least one nutritious hot meal per day. The CERC was commissioned to explore the activities of the MNH, gaining an insight into how the whole of person approach to food security was being implemented. This understanding was gained through the perspective of those who were paid employees, Volunteers or accessed the MNH services, outlining the benefits, barriers and future suggestions for the MNH operations when addressing food security in the Latrobe Valley. Data were collected between 2022 - 2023 using a mixed methods approach to understand the impact of the MNH services on participants. Participants included MNH stakeholders, staff, Volunteers, secondary school students and people who accessed the MNH services. In addition to this, a comprehensive literature review was performed to understand the global landscape of food insecurity, exploring how people access Food Banks, the opportunities that arise from engaging with food security service activities and the perspectives of employees who ran these services.
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- Copyright © Federation University Australia 2024 except where noted
- Subject
- Collaborative Evaluation & Research Centre (CERC); Morwell Neighbourhood House (MNH); Food bank
- Full Text
- Funder
- Open Access
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