Food Security Review Paper 2018 Part B

Interventions

Economic Environment

Table: Economic Environment Food Security Interventions

Prevention/primary prevention interventions

Given the economic determinant of food insecurity relates to the unequal distribution of wealth and income, the potential for local government or community health to address this determinant is limited. Therefore no interventions are noted here.

Early intervention/secondary prevention interventions

Interventions to increase the supply of affordable food:

Potential interventions here revolve around addressing the risk factors associated with living on a low income and coping with high living expenses. The focus of these initiatives is therefore to increase the supply of affordable food by actions such as:

• establishing or supporting food co-ops, bulk buying, markets, food swaps, farm gate sales, farm-household links
• enhancing the provision of low cost or subsidised meals programs
• enhancing food rescue and food redistribution programs.

This has been an area of considerable activity, but little evaluation of impact. Many lessons have been learnt not least of which is the importance of ensuring that ideas that begin with project funding become integrated into policy and practice i.e. business as usual in the relevant Council, community agencies or local businesses. The VicHealth Food for All Program ran numerous interventions including:

• The Robinvale community market took four years of hard work and on-going Council input to become established and sustainable, to engage local growers, the local Indigenous community garden and local businesses and community groups.

• Efforts to establish farm gate sales and a farm gate tourist trail in the Swan Hill region involved working with tourism agencies, the farming community and local government: maintaining the initiative after the end of the project funding was a challenge.

• Food swaps can be a way to enhance urban agriculture and share food at no cost.

• Cafe meals programs can be a successful way of improving access to healthy food for vulnerable people such as people who are homeless, disabled, or elderly and isolated. See the Cities of Yarra and Maribyrnong; and also in Stonnington and Port Phillip through Inner South Community Health. Engagement of café owners as collaborative partners with shared values and vision seems to be critical to the success of this delivery of subsidised meals to at risk populations in local cafes.

• Food redistribution strategies included establishing local network of food relief agencies to enhance and co-ordinate and advertise local food support options, and enhancing food support with meal planning, food preparation and food storage advice. Efforts were made to establish a local foodbank in both Dandenong and in Wodonga. The Avocare Community Connect Distribution Centre in Dandenong in partnership with Foodbank Victoria, combines a range of activities including education, training, work experience and employment support plus, volunteer opportunities, catering, the provision of cooked meals, sandwiches and fresh food to local agencies for redistribution and direct to food insecure individuals.

• The Albury Wodonga Regional Foodshare operates as a “collaborative service that addresses food insecurity among people experiencing hardship in our region.” The focus is on food rescue, food sharing, empowerment of people and sustainability.

Treatment/tertiary prevention interventions

Interventions to support financial literacy:

Interventions identified here are arguably in the tertiary prevention or treatment area and focus on supporting people to acquire skills in financial literacy so as to manage the challenges of living on a low income.

• Provide budgeting, income management, savings and financial literacy information and support.
• Ensure these programs are tailored to specific population groups, e.g. in languages other than English.
• Treatment programs for those with a gambling addiction or substance use problem could also be identified as tertiary prevention programs to support those whose disposable income is limited by their addiction, as more general programs they are not addressed here.
  

A number of successful financial literacy support programs have been run by the Brotherhood of St Laurence and all have been extensively evaluated research. These include no or low interest loan schemes, a savings and loans schemes in conjunction with the ANZ Bank and training for community workers to enable them to support their clients with financial literacy and planning.

The VicHealth Food for All Program saw number of areas develop information about the availability of cheap meals (Brimbank) or how to prepare meals on a budget of $50 a week which was the estimate at the time of the amount of money many people had for food after paying for essentials. (Swan Hill). These all have value especially when used in conjunction with community development work with the target audience, however sustainability of the resource is difficult without ongoing funds.

Table: Built or Physical Environment Food Security Interventions

Prevention/primary prevention interventions

Interventions to support affordable housing and food sensitive infrastructure:

As noted one of the determinants of food insecurity lies in the planning, design and development of our towns and cities. This suggests that primary prevention interventions should consider how urban infrastructure such as housing, transport and the distribution of food outlets can be modified to support the food security of residents. Local government has some (limited) capacity to do this through the development and application of the Municipal Strategic Statement and other planning regulations and local laws. Any work in this are needs close collaboration with social and urban planners, open space and transport planners.

• The adoption or promotion of integrated planning approaches and Food Sensitive Urban Planning Design principles.
• Advocacy around the provision of affordable housing.

Vic Health’s Food for All Program was developed to assist local government to address food insecurity in nine LGAs with a focus on priority at risk populations. The program ran for five years from 2005 to 2010 in partnership and was founded on the idea that LGAs could use integrated planning approaches to influence key factors affecting access to food including transportation, housing, economic development and land use. The hard copy and You tube resource Ten ways local government can act on food security is based on the evaluation findings and provides arguments and evidence of action in relation to the following:

• Identify who carries the food security agenda within Council
• Establish a local evidence base
• Incorporate food security across all Council policy and plans
• Model food access in Council-run activities, facilities and programs
• Use Council’s regulatory and fiscal powers to drive change
• Influence land use, business mix and the built environment
• Support residents to adopt healthy eating practices
• Support residents to grow and harvest food
• Build partnerships between council, community, welfare and other support agencies
• Advocate on broader food security related issues such as public transport, housing, urban land use, food pricing and labelling etc.

The National Heart Foundation recommends the adoption of food-sensitive planning and urban design approaches (FSPUD).

Food-sensitive planning and urban design does not simply assert that we have a problem in our cities, but sets out to identify new ways of tackling issues, providing a suite of ideas and innovations that cities should now embrace. It tackles a topic that has little precedent as an agenda for the planning of cities in Australia. It also sets out a host of reasons why we should add food to the core elements of the planning and design of our urban areas. (FSPUD 2011, p.1)

Good et al (2010) undertook a piece of work that aimed to identify how local government planning tools could be used to influence physical and policy environments to support healthy eating behaviours in communities. Although based in Queensland, it remains relevant to Victoria. An audit of Queensland’s legislative and non-legislative local government planning tools was conducted to assess their potential use in addressing strategies to achieve positive nutrition outcomes. Ten strategies were identified and covered the following themes: improving access to healthy foods and drinks; increasing access to breastfeeding facilities; decreasing fast food outlet density; and unhealthy food advertising.

Montague (2011) summarises the evidence that underpins the value of taking action in this area and concludes that there are three key areas where planners can take action to ensure food sensitive design principles are adopted.

Firstly, in relation to land use patterns, local government planners can:

• Ensure that processes to undertake precinct or structure planning identify, zone or designate sites for fresh food retail or production.

• Ensure that the potential for food production options in communal open space are included when undertaking open space planning.

• Advocate for changes in the Victorian Planning Provisions where it is identified that these prevent or hinder food sensitive design.

• Advocate for the adoption of a specific zone for commercial urban agriculture.

• Consider how they can use local laws to influence food access in situations where they believe their legislated planning powers are limited. For example, local government reports that it has limited powers to influence the mix of food retail outlets under the current state planning scheme. However, it may be possible to use Council bye-laws to modify the size and the location of the signage that advertises specific types of food outlet such as fast food chains.

• Explore the possibility of following the example of some local authorities in the UK who are seeking the powers to ban “unhealthy takeaway food outlets” if they are close to schools.

Secondly, planners can take action in relation to urban design measures at the individual building or site, street and neighbourhood level by:

• Including food production options into building, street and neighbourhood design.
• Ensuring affordable housing options are part of any new development.

Finally, given the evidence of access as a barrier to food security (and the limited role of local government in the public transport system as a whole) local government can take action in relation to modes and patterns of transport, action could be taken in:

• Providing community based transport to key food retail outlets.
• Encouraging food retailers to provide transport or delivery services.
• Ensuring walkability or cyclability for residents to reach local fresh food outlets.
• Undertaking advocacy to higher levels of government in order to influence the provision and frequency of public transport which in Victoria but not Queensland, is a state government responsibility.

Early intervention/secondary prevention interventions

Interventions to increase local access to fresh food:

• Identify food deserts and work on ways to eliminate them.

Actions may vary considerably depending on the local issues. It may be a question of increasing public transport, developing local structure plans such as the City of Darebin Structure Plan for Reservoir (a known food desert with high levels of food insecurity) contains an explicit discussion of the food security needs of the area, discusses the need to ensure the provision of affordable housing, sustain a vibrant community gardening culture, and plans for the potential development of a number of other urban agriculture initiatives and the inclusion of two new supermarkets into the area.

Bringing fresh food into an area via mobile fresh fruit and vegetable vans has been tried in a number of instances see Food for All: Lessons from two community demonstration projects however, sustainability of these options has proved to be a challenge.

• Promote community transport initiatives and advocacy around public transport.

The City of Dandenong Food For All program identified that a caravan park, home to a number of people living on low incomes and without personal transport, only had walking access to a petrol station fast food outlet when a bus stop was moved a considerable distance away. Advocacy by Council with the private bus company resulted in a shift of the bus stop to just outside the caravan park. City of Melton organised community transport to bring older residents from outlying small communities into Melton to do grocery shopping. Challenges to be overcome here included changing the local rules that prevented shopping trolleys being carried on Council’s community buses or arranging for a trailer to carry the shopping behind the bus.

Treatment/tertiary prevention interventions

Interventions to ensure adequate food storage capacity:

1. Act (eg by using licensing and inspection powers) to ensure boarding or rooming houses, caravan parks etc have adequate facilities for food storage and preparation.

Local government has powers in relation to the licensing of boarding or rooming houses and caravan parks that include three areas: planning, building and public health inspections.

Basic requirements in a rooming or boarding house are identified in the handbook prepared by the Registered Accommodation Association of Victoria Running a better rooming house: A best practice handbook for operators 2014 and environmental health, planning and building inspectors can be encouraged to look more closely at these issues.

Kitchens:

• Each resident must have access to and use of food preparation facilities. These can be provided in the resident’s room or a shared kitchen.

• If these facilities are in a resident’s room, they must include a food preparation area, a sink, oven and cook-top in good working order, a refrigerator with at least 80 litres capacity, a cupboard with a minimum 0.1 cubic metres (100 litres) of storage capacity for each person in the room.

• A shared kitchen must have a:

• food preparation area, a sink, an oven and cook-top with four burners in good working order for every 12 or fewer residents who do not have an oven or cook-top in their room (based on the maximum number of residents the rooming house can accommodate).
• refrigerator with at least 400 litres capacity.
• lockable cupboard for each resident, with a minimum 0.1 cubic metre capacity.

2. Initiate a loans or saving program to support purchase of white-goods for food preparation or storage such as refrigerators.

The VicHealth Food for All program in Swan Hill in conjunction with a local credit union, established a savings and loans scheme specifically to enable low income clients to purchase refrigerators and have access to a temporary frig whilst saving the money to purchase one. Numbers were limited and it was found that a loan scheme had limited success without broader based financial support and counselling.

Socio-Cultural Environment

Table: Socio-Cultural Environment Food Security Interventions

Prevention/primary prevention interventions

The socio-cultural roots or determinants underpinning food insecurity appear to reside in the systemic disadvantage experienced by people in vulnerable population groups. This remains a fundamental challenge for local government and community health to address: therefore no interventions are identified.

Early intervention/secondary prevention interventions

Most early intervention initiatives in this area revolve around the idea that lack of food literacy is a risk factor for food insecurity (as well as a risk factor for obesity and other chronic diet related diseases) that this can be addressed by the provision of food related education.

Interventions to enhance food literacy:

• Provide education and support around diet, nutrition, meal planning, cooking, shopping, food storage; etc.
• Deliver education programs and food literacy information targeted to specific population groups at greater risk for example recent arrivals, males living alone, young single parents, etc.

Interventions to increase supply of fresh food in organisational settings:

• Promote healthy food policy adoption (eg leisure centres, swimming pools, sporting clubs, schools, early childhood services, senior citizens clubs etc).

Promote healthy food policy and procedures adoption by schools, workplaces, early childhood, aged care services etc.

These two areas are possibly the most active areas for intervention and state and federal governments have made significant investments over the last few years including the national Healthy Communities Initiative (200+ Australian LGAs) and the Victorian Healthy Together Victoria (14 Victorian LGAs). Both were branded as healthy eating and physical activity promotion or obesity prevention interventions rather than food security interventions. Large sums were allocated centrally to evaluation, but limited information has been published. Many programs and local government recipients of funding undertook evaluations themselves; however, most of this material remains unpublished.

The evaluation data that there is from the programs funded under these initiatives (for example HCI programs run by the City of Melton, and the Cities of Kingston and Bayside) and from the VicHealth Food for All program indicate that participants increased their understanding of what constitutes a healthy diet. A number of initiatives focussed specifically on recent arrivals (Cities of Dandenong, Brimbank and Maribyrnong) including:

• The Welcome Kit a multi-language resource detailing how to store safely, prepare and cook Australian fruit and vegetables.
• Meal planning, followed by market trips and cooking sessions.
• Preparing healthy school lunch box.
• Cooking programs for single males from Africa, for young single mothers, for older men living alone and many more.

Again the lesson seems to be, short term programs, initiatives and publications have value, but tend to falter as external funding ceases.

Treatment/tertiary prevention interventions

The potential interventions identified here revolve around the risk factors for food insecurity namely, limited education, low levels of English language proficiency, limited literacy or numeracy and limited food literacy.

Interventions to ensure food safety:

• Support low cost food safety training especially for those with low literacy and English proficiency.
• Support the accreditation of community kitchens in community centres.

Literature and resources in this area are scanty. Several of the Food for All programs ran low cost food safety training so that farmers could prepare items for sale like jam or chutney, pickles and preserves out of their produce, and so that community agencies could run cooking programs in Neighbourhood Houses and people could participate in food preparation in food rescue sites.

Local government and community health have picked up the idea of community kitchens and the delivery of food literacy/cooking programs. Whilst there is value in all council facilities having accredited kitchen where education and community food events can be held; care has to be taken to ensure that these programs reach at risk, vulnerable population groups, not simply enhance the skills of those who already have them. The Master Chef generation is well and truly here.

Natural Environment

Table: Natural Environment Food Security Interventions

Prevention/primary prevention interventions

The determinant of food insecurity founded in the natural environment can be described as the alienation and degradation of food producing land as a result of urban growth and climate change. To address this determinant requires action on a national if not global level. However, potentially, efforts can be made at the local or regional level to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the impact of climate change. These strategies can include the promotion of sustainable farming practices and the reduction of community, household and individual water consumption, energy use and waste production.

Early intervention/secondary prevention interventions

Interventions to protect and enhance the production and distribution of fresh food locally:

• Explore zoning practices that protect local peri-urban agricultural land.
• Ensure local growers have access to support to enhance production and promote local sales.
• Promote the adoption of organisational policies around the purchase of local food.

Montague (2011) gave a then up-to-date review of peri-urban agriculture literature and concluded:

Firstly, the peri-urban strategies described in the literature cannot be described as proven food insecurity prevention or amelioration measures. Rather they should be seen at this stage as strategies that can support the viability of peri-urban food production and provide generalised community benefit (as well as environmental benefits and therefore potential benefits for future food security). In many cases these strategies (especially those designed to increase the financial viability of peri-urban farmers) require adaptation to increase food access for those who are currently food insecure. Ideally social, economic and environmental goals that incorporate sustainable food production close to urban areas and community food security can all be met by supporting peri-urban agriculture but in reality, there may be times when these two different dimensions of food security do not always, necessarily complement each other.

Secondly, the arguments about the need to retain high quality food producing land around major cities are persuasive in environmental, sustainability and long term economic terms. These long term goals clearly require national, state or at least regional action. In addition, local level action is necessary to support the viability of peri-urban food producers and ensure community food security goals can also be addressed.

In summary, what might work over the four environments for health are summarised below.

In relation to the natural environment emerging evidence suggests that planning powers could be used to preserve agricultural land and support agricultural practices. Examples include:

• Zoning support/ explicit statements in Municipal Strategic Statements re preservation of prime agricultural land in close proximity to urban areas or limitations on the extent to which land can be subdivided and sold off as hobby farms which do not produce food.
• The use of regulatory and fiscal powers to support ongoing food production in peri-urban areas, for example by facilitating the management of the urban farming interface such as agricultural noise, smell and waste management issues, fire and water issues.

In relation to the economic environment: emerging evidence suggests that we could improve the financial viability of peri-urban farmers and food producers and at the same time increase accessibility and affordability of fresh food by:

• Supporting the implementation of Community Supported Agriculture programs.

• The creation of links between peri-urban agriculture and food banks and food rescue strategies.

• The adoption of food procurement policies by hospitals, local government, schools and other institutions.

• Support for farmers markets and farm stalls. However, it should be noted that these may not have any impact on food access issues for people who are food insecure unless they are tailored to the needs of socio-economically disadvantaged communities; this would include attention to place, time, price and access issues.

• The promotion of local food trails, buy local campaigns and agri-tourism initiatives.

• Being flexible in the application of regulations re signage and road side sales to facilitate farm trails and road side sales.

• Flexibility in the application of Food Act requirements to facilitate production and sale of value-added products such as jams and juices from fruit farms: examples include cheaper food safety training programs, flexibility in registration of farm kitchens for food production.

This document also gives a number of brief Australian case studies of food security initiatives in these areas.

Carey et al (2011) propose that policy initiatives to increase fruit and vegetable consumption should include measures to address the pressures facing production, and that the most effective policy responses are likely to be integrated approaches that aim to increase fruit and vegetable availability and affordability through innovative solutions to problems of production and distribution. They provide some brief examples of potential integrated policy solutions are identified to illustrate the possibilities and stimulate discussion.

Burton et al (2013) provide information on current urban agriculture practices in Australia, including a critical review of good practice urban agriculture and analyses the opportunities and barriers for extending and expanding upon these practices.

Treatment/tertiary prevention interventions

Interventions to support urban agriculture:

• Initiate and support urban agriculture options e.g. home gardening, community gardens, productive open space.

A review of the literature (Montague 2011) to identify evidence of the impact of urban agriculture initiatives on food security concluded that whilst systematic evidence was not yet available, there appear to be a number of ways in which local government can support food production in urban areas. In the built environment, this includes planning support to include food production in new developments (roof top, balcony, vertical) or to retro-fit existing urban developments. In the economic environment, local government can support urban food production by providing practical and financial support re the availability of:

• composting (bins)
• water use (tanks, hoses and pumps)
• soil preparation (soil analysis, labour support, compost or topsoil provision, fertiliser)
• growing (raised beds, seeds, seedling, tools)
• means of redistributing excess domestic food production e.g. market sales, food swaps, food rescue donations.

In relation to the natural environment, Councils can support the development and maintenance of urban food production by:

• Planning work to ensure food production is incorporated into development and maintenance open space, parks and gardens, nature strips.
• Advocacy to vary zoning regulations to facilitate urban farm development.
• Variations in the local application of water regulations to support food growing.

In relation to the social environment, local government can support urban food production by:

• Promoting the environmental, nutritional and economic benefits of domestic food production.
• Providing information and education about the skills needed for domestic food production e.g. soil preparation, mulching, composting, water use, pruning, planting, harvesting, bee keeping, chicken and duck keeping, for using home produce via cooking, preserving or sharing excess fresh food.

In response to growing interest in urban agriculture, local government is beginning to adopt specific policy to support this, sometimes in conjunction with community health. The City of Moreland, in partnership with Merri Community Health Services run a Moreland Food Access Project which involves among other things a garden network, community gardens and food growers food swaps. The City of Moreland is in the process of developing an Urban Agriculture and Food Production Strategy.

In 2014, the City of Darebin became the first council in Australia to adopt an urban agriculture strategy and the two publications Urban food production strategy 2014-2018 followed by the Urban food production strategy implementation plan 2014-18 summarise a range of food growing initiatives across infrastructure planning, community development, climate change mitigation.

Darebin is also the home of the Darebin fruit squad: a team of volunteers who harvest excess fruit from peoples’ fruit trees as well as provide advice on tree maintenance. The harvest is shared between the tree owners and a variety of charities. Anyone in Darebin or surrounding suburbs can call in the fruit squad when they have a tree that needs harvesting. This avoids fruit being wasted and also assists homeowners who may have otherwise ended up with a mess of fallen fruit causing a nuisance and possibly encouraging disease. The fruit squad also provides advice and expertise on pruning trees and dealing with basic tree problems and disease. The outcome is an urban orchard in people’s back yards that are healthy and productive. The fruit squad also provides people an opportunity to meet neighbors and build their networks.

Darebin was closely followed by the City of Yarra with its Urban Agriculture Strategy 2014-2018 complemented by a series of guidelines in relation to community gardens, nature stirp and garden beds, planter boxes, productive trees.

Four inner Melbourne LGAs developed the Growing Green Guide: A guide to green roofs, walls and facades in Melbourne and Victoria with advice from industry experts and academia. The guide is written for professionals involved in the design, construction and maintenance of green roofs, walls and / or facades and highlights urban food production, promoting the opportunity for food growing on a local scale, for community gardens, school gardens and social enterprise.

Edible Bus Stop UK is a landscape architecture and urban design organisation that aims to transform unused land around bus stops into productive growing land. People catching public transport or walking past are encouraged to pick food to eat or take home to cook. The aim is not only to provide food but also to improve the amenity of the area and in doing so make the place safer and more pleasant. The project brings the community together in working bees also improves connections and leads to community strengthening.

The Food-Sensitive Planning and Urban Design (FSPUD) case studies include a description of a street and public open space orchard managed and maintained by the homeowners association, which is funded through a quarterly levy on each homeowner’s rates notice. Homeowners automatically become a member of the homeowners association when they purchase a housing lot – active participation is not compulsory but is encouraged.

3000 Acres is a project that aims to connect people who want to grow food to land that is not currently being used. 3000 acres recognises that many people living in cities want to grow food but lack the space required. There is also underutilised land within the urban setting that is lying dormant. 3000 Acres has a team of planners, designers and gardeners to assist individuals and groups to contact landowners and negotiate usage of land. In addition 3000 Acres can put people in touch with other gardeners to build groups who can work together. From a landowners’ perspective it provides an opportunity to get unused land cleaned up and maintained.

Cultivating Community is a non-government organisation with a wealth of experience and resources to assist local level work around food growing including:

• Public Housing Community Gardens
• Community Gardens
• School Food Gardens
• Food Waste Projects
• Food Systems Projects
• Workshops and Consultancy
• Developing Innovative Projects.

The Fitzroy Community Food Centre (FCFC) is a space managed by Cultivating Community incorporating a kitchen and a garden. It is being developed as a community food activity hub, engaging and partnering with community groups and organisations that will run a multitude of food-related programs, events and activities in the Centre. The Centre’s activities are based around micro enterprise, food security, food waste and food system advocacy and community building, for both public housing tenants as well as the wider community.

A detailed consideration of food security and community gardening in a Melbourne Neighbourhood Renewal area (Davis 2009) includes a series of tables that summarise how councils, community health, schools, other non-government organisations such as neighbourhood houses, and the state government can support food security and community gardening.

Both Montague (2011) and Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network entitled Evaluating Sydney’s community gardens (2006) give useful overviews of the values, challenges, likely impact and lessons in relation to community gardens.

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