A taskforce has been formed to tackle food insecurity in the Illawarra after a report showed 38 per cent of households were being affected.
The Illawarra Shoalhaven Food Futures Taskforce comprised of local researchers, health professionals and organisations aims to address the high level of food insecurity depicted by the UOW survey “Let’s talk about food.” Conducted by UOW’s Dr Karen Charlton and Prof Katherine Kent, the survey has revealed over a third of the region was affected with 12 per cent of the population being severely food insecure.
Source: Let’s talk about food
Dr Charlton believes the taskforce should lobby politicians to address the issue.
“More than 1 in 10 households had gone without food because they couldn’t afford or get access to it,” she said.
“Those are really sobering statistics… we feel that this is evidence that we can take to politicians to say, look we need to do something about this.”
Food insecurity is when a person or household does not have sufficient access to a healthy and nutritious diet. There are three stages to food insecurity: marginal, moderate and severe.
A survey participant from Albion Park said that their food choices are limited by the cost of food and services,
“Due to the Cost of Living it has been many months since I purchased fresh food to live on. Fresh Veggies are through the roof and power bills are killing me,” he said.
Source: Foodbank Hunger Report 2024
Dr Charlton said that the Illawarra is affected worse than other areas in Australia as a result of poor infrastructure and the rising cost of living.
“We’ve actually got a thriving local food production system, but the problem is that there’s no setup in our region to store, process, transport and distribute that food,” she said,
“It’s about creating a food system that does access local growers.
“We want to enhance access to affordable and healthy food.”
Food grown locally often bypasses the Illawarra region, instead it is being sold at Sydney markets where it must be transported back to the Illawarra.
