Our journal article for the policy mapping study (Part 1a) was published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, and a manuscript reporting on the Council survey (Part 1b) was published in the Health Promotion Journal of Australia. A ‘plain language’ report of the six Council case studies (Part 2) is available. We submitted a manuscript reporting on the case studies to the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, and a manuscript reporting on the survey of civil society organisations (Part 3) to Public Health Nutrition. We completed recruiting and interviewing civil society organisations (nine in total) for Part 4 of the project, and are in the process of analysing the data.
Amy, Belinda, Karen and Nick each provided a submission to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Food Production and Supply. On behalf of the project team, Belinda drew on the findings of our local government research phases to present a case for the importance of local governments in addressing the urgent issues created by 21st century food systems. Karen spoke at the hearing on 21st March on behalf of Dietitians Australia, Nick on 25th March on behalf of Sustain: The Australian Food Network, and Amy and Belinda on 9th May.
Amy presented at Community Gardens Australia’s event, ‘Local Everywhere! Gathering and Growing in Makuru‘ in July, with a presentation ‘Local governments as the gatekeepers to community gardens: What does “support” mean?’. She was also invited to be the keynote speaker at the ‘Victualis Sustainable Food Dinner‘ in Canberra. This talk was incredibly well received by the audience, which included a range of ministers, Regional Development Australia representatives, investors, food innovators, academics, community champions, food producers, and more.
Our journal article reporting on the Council case studies (Part 2) was published in November. Access it here.