Food Security and Healthy Eating

Food security is defined as people having access to nutritionally adequate, culturally acceptable, and safe food on a regular basis without having to resort to emergency support.

Healthy eating means regularly and consistently eating a wide variety of nutritious foods. Nutritious food helps people grow, develop, and function physically, mentally and socially across the lifespan. Healthy eating can help prevent a range of diseases including diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis and some cancers. It's also important for healthy teeth.

In order to eat healthily, people need to have food security. Some of the things influencing food security include having enough money to buy healthy food, having access to transport to get to healthy food outlets, being able to walk to shops that sell nutritious food, knowing what and how to buy, prepare, cook, store and/or grow fresh food.

Lack of food security is linked to having a low income, lack of transport and not having fresh food outlets close by. These factors also contribute to obesity as high fat foods may be cheaper, more accessible, more convenient and more filling than fresh, healthier food. There are more fast food outlets across Frankston City than fresh food outlets, so it may also be easier for many people to eat fast food.

In a recent survey of 450 Frankston City residents, 12 per cent of people had gone without food in the last six months because of lack of money; and 7 per cent had gone without food because of lack of transport. Previous research by Frankston Community Health Service has shown that 70 per cent of Frankston City is a fresh food desert, meaning that people had to travel more than 500 metres to access fresh food.

It is estimated that dietary factors account for 7 to 20 per cent of the total burden of chronic disease in Australia. Much of this could be prevented by improving food security and healthy eating.

Frankston Food for All Project

Frankston City is one of seven Victorian Councils funded by VicHealth's Food for All program to improve food security of its residents. The Frankston Food for All project has four key components:

1. Community Gardens - The project will support the establishment of three community gardens across the municipality, particularly in areas where food security is an issue.
2. Horticultural Training - The project will provide formal training (through a registered training provider) to enable people to grow their own food, or to work in the horticultural field. The training may be a pathway to further training, employment, and to growing fresh produce locally. Informal training on specific gardening issues or techniques, will be offered through the community gardens for interested community members.
3. Community Education and Information - Working with the local media and other communication channels, the project aims to raise awareness in the community about food security issues.
4. Policy and Planning - A key objective of the project is to inform Council's policy and planning activities where they impact on access to healthy food. The first step has been to include food security as a priority issue in the new Frankston Health and Wellbeing Plan, to be launched in June, 2007.

Montague Park Community Garden Web site  http://www.groundswell.org.au/

For more information please contact Community Development Officer - Food for All Project on 9784 1035 (Monday afternoon, Tuesday and Friday)