FOSTERING community and creating spaces for positive change is a key driver for Lou Ridsdale, who\u2019s celebrating a decade of her Food is Free community garden initiative. <\/p>\n
Preceding her work in food security with more than 20 years as a publicist and festival organiser in the Victorian music industry, she said her jump to environmental issues wasn\u2019t surprising.<\/p>\n
\u201cComms really drew me in as a good outlet to hopefully make change in society,\u201d she said. \u201cI loved supporting artists because they\u2019re often on the lower rungs of society. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been a very staunch supporter of the quiet voices, sometimes the ones that are neglected. Independent media can amplify their causes. <\/p>\n
\u201cI often did charity publicity and I was the first employee with Meredith Music Festival. I think working with teams backstage, you can see where the synchronicity is and how the magic happens. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been drawn to those circumstances so shifting over to environmental causes was a no-brainer.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ms Ridsdale\u2019s career shift began her Munash Organics and Fifteen Trees, the latter of which she still serves as comms manager, before founding Food is Free. <\/p>\n
She said the initiative grew out of personal experience following her return to her hometown. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d started gardening for myself after having lived in Melbourne for a couple decades and returning to Ballarat and realising I could actually grow my own produce,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mum had just passed so at the time it was a really healing place and it was somewhere I could focus my energy on happiness and positivity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realised suddenly I was growing way too much and that\u2019s where the idea of Food is Free came from. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s the idea of guerilla gardening where you can beautify and grow food in a space that doesn\u2019t belong to you, for the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing how much food insecurity is still a problem, being able to empower people through growing food is a really lovely gift.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Ridsdale\u2019s achievements regarding food security and gardening for Ballarat has seen her selected as one of the Zonta Club of Ballarat\u2019s six honourees in their Ballarat\u2019s Great Women 2024 honour roll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FOSTERING community and creating spaces for positive change is a key driver for Lou Ridsdale, who\u2019s celebrating a decade of her Food is Free community garden initiative. Preceding her work in food security with more than 20 years as a publicist and festival organiser in the Victorian music industry, she said her jump to environmental […]<\/p>\n