Foodways Consulting and Advisory

Work

Previous Clients and Recent Projects

Transforming School Food Systems

Project in Brief

The transformative potential of school food systems is widely underappreciated and far from being realised. This project explored the global landscape of state-level and national entities that take a systems approach to transform school food and illuminated best practice through selected case studies. This work was part of a larger project rethinking the role of young people in food systems transition and growing youth food sovereignty.

Background
Schools are a unique connecting point in communities – where families live, work, and play together and where, as they learn and grow, children form lasting connections with the world around them. Food is the essence of so many of these connections made in schools, from sharing meals and conversation in the company of friends at recess, to learning how food grows and where the food we eat comes from. Intentional or not, these are teachable moments that weave throughout the fabric of school life – offering unrivalled opportunities to engage the next generation with food in positive ways.

Transforming the connections in school food systems offers enormous potential to directly or indirectly address all of the Sustainable Development Goals. For example, connections made when bringing food into schools including 1. What food is purchased (such as local, diverse, healthy, and culturally appropriate), 2. From whom (for example, family farms and other vulnerable producer groups), and 3. From what type of production systems (for instance, those that lean more towards industrial practices versus agroecological) can lead to ripple effects beyond the school itself into homes, communities, and the broader food economy.

Scoping a Food Policy Network for Victoria

Project in Brief

Over the past four decades, food policy groups and their umbrella food policy networks, have emerged as an attempt to co-ordinate place-based action and drive food systems change for better social, environmental, and economic outcomes. This scoping review explored the need to establish a food policy network in Victoria and the potential nature of such an entity, including its purpose, functions and activities, backbone form, organisational structure, and funding arrangements.

Background

At their roots, food policy groups are an embodiment of food democracy; providing a dedicated space for diverse voices from communities and various sectors, to assemble and generate co-ordinated, collective action. Broadly speaking, food policy groups serve four main functions:

Serving as forums for discussing food systems issues,
Fostering connections between sectors in the food system,
Advocating for and influencing policy, and
Launching or supporting programs and services that address local needs.

Our understanding of how systems change means more time should be spent on experimenting, learning, and sharing, in the way that food policy groups and networks make possible.

Life changes through emergence, not incrementally. Instead of the simple sum of individual parts, life mixes it all up in networks of relationships and produces something new.

Margaret J. Wheatley