Accessibility focus for food movement meeting

WORLD Food Day 2018 was discussed in the Ballarat Library late last month.

Presented by Smart Living Ballarat the free mini forum discussed the topic – Local Food: Sharing & Caring.

Representatives from local food distribution and service groups talked about why the food movement is important in Ballarat.

Tim Drylie, coordinator at Smart Living Ballarat said this was the third sustainability food workshop held by the group, which is sponsored by the City of Ballarat and supported by BREAZE.

“We spoke about local food and the concept of caring and sharing along the lines of food movements,” he said.

“For instance, Lou Ridsdale from the Food is Free Laneway who has a great concept on sharing food and giving food to the community.

“We also had Elen Grant from Hidden Orchards, he distributes food by going to other growers’ gardens and picking it up to distribute otherwise it would just go to waste.

“One of the biggest problems with rural residents is that there is a distinct disadvantage in terms of access to good quality food, also within Ballarat and indeed Australia.”

Other speakers were Catherine Kennedy from Ballarat Health Services who spoke about their program Second Bite, which is a redistribution of commercial food to disadvantaged people and organisations such as the Salvation Army.