How Can Food Hubs Catalyse Healthy and Resilient Local Food Systems in Victoria?
Supporting sustainable farming and access to food
Poor nutrition and associated health outcomes result from a complex set of factors hindering access to healthy food. Interventions need to address the built, natural, social, economic environments and the 'systems of provision' that make up the social determinants of health in an integrated way.
Food Hubs can make it easier for people to access fresh, seasonal foods, by improving channels and facilities for farmers to sell into local markets.
This project is using the City of Casey as a case study, to investigate the design and development of a Food Hub. It aims to build knowledge about the potential of Food Hubs to catalyse and support local food systems in Victoria and Australia, identify stakeholders and involve them in exploring the design and operation of a Food Hub in Casey that could make fresh food accessible and affordable and strengthen long-term local supply (providing fair returns to farmers) and to develop an effective framework for assessing and evaluating the impact of Food Hubs.
The project has also established the Australian Food Hubs Network as a vehicle for developing and propagating knowledge, methodologies and processes for operationalising Food Hubs in Australia.
Visit the VEIL website to discover more about this project.