The North East and Border Food Alliance has held a series of Storying With… Workshops across the region, in settings where local food and community participation is key.

We sought stories and lived-experience perspectives through Storying with the Farm, Storying with the Market Garden and Storying with the Food Hub.

This wonderful series of events saw community members who are passionate about food, sustainability and community connection come together and share rich narratives about the power of local food systems to meet community needs in a variety of ways.

Now that these workshops have concluded, the stories so generously shared will contribute to the creation of a Local Food Atlas mapping food systems across the northeast and border region, informed by the lived experience of the communities involved – watch this space!

The North East Local Food Strategy has been in existence since 2018, when a group of individuals and community organisations gathered to draw on the idea that collaborative action would lead to a more equitable future for food, people and the environment across our region.

Currently, WHGNE is leading the development of this vision because we believe that in order to achieve optimal health and wellbeing for rural and regional Victorians, we must ensure that gender and climate responsive planning are central to informing resilient local food systems and their vital role in determining health and wellbeing outcomes, across the supply chain and those settings in which food is accessed.

We see our role as sharing our expertise in health and gender equity to guide this work, and as advocates driving change for communities to thrive equitably in our region.

To mark World Localisation Day on 21st June, WHGNE has created Local food, local people: Nourishing our community. This is a free digital magazine featuring the first-hand stories of people across our region, who are engaged in diverse efforts to ensure fresh produce, community connection and food to nourish the soul are in abundance in our region.

We hope this will act as a resource to showcase the incredible community spirit driving initiatives making up local food systems – from stories about cooking classes, community champions and kids with green thumbs to stories of circular economies, waste reduction and communities and gardeners who have come together to ensure that the rising cost of living does not exclude access to fresh produce – we’re hoping that this is the first collection in a series of lived-experience perspectives gathered, around the benefits of a local food systems approach for our region and for Victoria.

You can have a read here:

As the organisation leading the renewal of the North East Local Food Strategy, WHGNE submitted a response the Inquiry into Food Security in Victoria at the end of July.

Our submission contends that it is vital to ensure strong leadership and coordination across the state when it comes to food systems work, that take into consideration socioeconomic, place-based factors, with resources to match.

Our submission urges decision-makers to take action to increase access to social supports for underserved communities to address the drivers of poverty, and support ‘food with dignity’ approaches to food insecurity.

Read a summary of the submission here.

Or you can explore our full suite of recommendations and the supporting evidence by reading our submission here.