Food security
Access to fresh nutritious food is a basic human right. Unfortunately 6% of Victorians are food insecure (i). This means that over 300,000 people cannot regularly provide themselves with a culturally appropriate, safe and nutritious food supply from a non-emergency source. There are many factors that contribute to people experiencing food insecurity including homelessness, unemployment, illness, geographic location, access to transport and lack of education around food and nutrition. SecondBite’s food distribution model aims to address many of these issues.
Each night, over 100,000 Australians are thought to be homeless (ii).
Food access
Food relief agencies are the primary source of food for many people experiencing food insecurity, and in the current economic and social climate, 90% of SecondBite’s agencies have experienced an increase in the demand for their food-related services (iii). Food deserts exist around Victoria and Tasmania, where people cannot regularly reach fresh and wholesome food (iv). Some individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse communities may be unable to access familiar food stuffs as they settle into their new homes (v).
Last year, there was a 16% increase in the price of fruit (vi).
Health
Increasing the fruit and vegetables available to socio-economically disadvantaged Australians can have an impact on reducing diet related chronic disease in this demographic. More than 8% of low income individuals are suffering from diabetes and women from this community are twice as likely to develop obesity as wealthier Australian women (vii).
Your risk of obesity is 20% to 40% higher if you have an insecure food supply (iix).
Wellbeing
The feeling of eating juicy oranges or crunchy carrots is an intrinsic pleasure that has proven positive powers to improve health, social and mental well being. The social inclusion individual recipients feel from sharing hearty meals with others is another positive outcome of the food programs we support, that run throughout Australia.
For a healthy and happy lifestyle, two servings of fruit and five servings of veggies are recommended every day (ix).
Education
As well as a hand out of fresh produce, SecondBite also aims to offer a hand up for food relief recipients. And our Food Program and Research department is ever evolving to help food programs improve their nutrition, food safety and sustainable food practices.
Disadvantaged communities have up to 2.5 times the exposure to fast food outlets (x).
Empowering
Confidence can be low for individuals that experience unemployment, homelessness and crisis. SecondBite collaborates with food relief agencies (through programs like The Big Picture) to involve volunteers in food programs and at our warehouse to learn skills in communication, food handling and safety.
At the end of 2009, more than 600,000 Australians were unemployed (xi).
(i) Community Indicators Victoria, (2008); (ii) Australian Bureau of Statistic, (2006); (iii) Contact SecondBite for their 2009 Annual Recipient Survey; (iv) See, for example, the city of Marybinong Food Maps Project, (2009); (v) “The Food Access Project – The story so far”, CEH and VicHealth, (2008); (vi) www.ausfoodnews.com.au, (2009); (vii) “Fair Health Statistics”, VicHealth, (2009); (iix) “ A review of the literature describing the link between poverty, food insecurity and obesity with specific reference to Australia”, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, (2004); (ix) National Health and Medical Research Council, (1991); (x) tbc; (xi) Australian Bureau of Statistics, (2009)