The City of Greater Bendigo is developing Greater Bendigo’s first ever Food System Strategy to support a healthy, local food system and improve the health and wellbeing of our community for the next 10 years.
City of Greater Bendigo Health and Wellbeing Director Vicky Mason said the City is calling on food producers, growers, processors, manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers, chefs and food retailers, schools and educators, health services, resource recovery agencies, workplaces and members of the general public to get involved.
“The strategy will look at everything it takes to get food on our plate from growing, storing, processing and transporting to selling, eating and then disposing of our food waste,” Ms Mason said.
“It’s an important piece of work given that every person in the community is impacted by our food system on one level or another and we need to make sure it is a system that is healthy and is meeting the needs of the community.
“It is important to note that dietary factors present the greatest risk to the health of the Australian population and in Greater Bendigo, 91.4% of adults don’t meet the Australian vegetable intake guidelines and 57.6% of adults don’t meet the guidelines for fruit intake.
“We encourage everyone to have input into the strategy so we can find out what residents believes would make it easier for them to eat healthy, grow their own food and support our local food system into the future.
“The City has a vision to create the world’s most liveable community and one of the ways we hope to achieve this is by protecting, improving and promoting health and wellbeing within our community.”
There will be opportunities for residents to have a say at a range of local community events and activities. Community members can also complete an online survey until May, 2019 to help inform the development of the Strategy at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RPHB9XZ
