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SNAPSHOT: Food findings
November 25, 2011
Residents of the Clarence municipality are providing Anglicare with information about their eating and shopping habits as part of a new research project.
The aim of the project is to ensure that all people in the area have access to good quality, affordable and healthy food. “We have mapped what types of food are available in local stores and where all of these outlets are located in the municipality,” said Anglicare’s Ann Hughes. “Now residents are completing household surveys about the foods they eat and where they obtain them”.
The research is being conducted by the Tasmanian Food Access Research Coalition made up of Anglicare, the University of Tasmania’s Department of Rural Health and the School of Human Life Sciences, Dorset Council, Clarence City Council, Tasmanian Centre for Global Learning, the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services and Neighbourhood Houses. The $180,000 project is being funded by the Tasmanian Food Security Fund with work being undertaken in both the Clarence and Dorset municipalities.
The data will be analysed and a report released in 2012. “We want to work with community members to develop solutions to the issues they are identifying,” said Ms Hughes. “We are seeking ideas from the people of Clarence about the best ways to improve their access to good quality and affordable food”.
The research will provide a model that can be adapted for use in other communities. “This work will identify specific difficulties that people in particular areas may have and then determine ways in which those challenges can be overcome,” said Ms Hughes. “We envisage that some of these solutions will focus on local food production (such as community gardens), addressing transport issues, and increasing the skills of people in growing and cooking food. We will be working with other organisations, such as schools and neighbourhood centres, to develop these projects”.
