We won a grant to improve Food security in the Northern Rivers!

We’re delighted to announce that the Northern Rivers Community Foundation has provided Resilient Byron with a grant to Improve Food Security and Community Resilience in the Northern Rivers.

Before applying for the grant, we had spoken with key players in the Northern Rivers including local, state and federal governments, community food and resilience organisations, and gathered anecdotal evidence from discussions with residents. Those consultations highlighted food security concerns and existing food insecurity in the region. Key issues include: high cost of nutritious food, financial pressure, fragile distribution systems, low food supplies, impact of natural disasters, unsustainable food production methods. The key finding from these discussions is that there is no region-wide plan in place to tackle food insecurity nor is there any project aiming to develop such a plan. Some projects are in place, such as RegenAg, local food retail initiatives, that are components in a regional food security system but are generally acting independently with little or no regional coordination or policy support. In addition, a review of the literature on food security and resilience highlights the importance of food localisation and place-based governance and leadership to address the challenges of food insecurity.

The Northern Rivers needs a strategic approach to build a resilient sustainable food system to improve community health, wellbeing and prosperity. So this project aims to create a shared vision and pathways towards food security and resilience by bringing together the community, government and food system actors in the Northern Rivers.

This project, implemented in partnership with Wild Community, will undertake a scoping study of the food system in two LGAs Byron and Lismore Shires as a representative sample of the Northern Rivers. Through collection and analysis of data, 25 semi-structured interviews and reference to best practice internationally, the project will bring together food system actors, the community and government to develop a vision to strengthen the regional food system to improve food security and access to nutritious food.

And from there, we hope that more projects will grow…

We now invite you to listen to an interview with Seb Berry, leader of the Resilient Byron Food security team, who introduces this upcoming project and provides some insights on issues related to food in our region here.