What a year it was! - We  worked hard to improve food security in Glenorchy through various initiatives. 

These included a school gardening program, micro-enterprise program (continuing to run in partnership with FiMBY-Food in My Backyard) and two new school cooking clubs which will continue to run without us this year. 

July 2011 saw the commencement of Garden 2 You, a new community food hub at Glenorchy Primary school  This not for-profit stall sold well over a tonne of fresh produce to families before the end of the year.  The school is currently looking to engage a new coordinator to get it up and running for 2012.  We look forward to hearing how this initiative continues to benefit this community.

It has also been fantastic to see a number of new networks and partnerships forming throughout the year.  One of particular note is the new ‘Growers Group’ which is a network of school garden and kitchen workers in Glenorchy.  We convened this group, and assisted them to attend the Moonah Taste of the World in March.  It was a fantastic day, with hundreds of families participating in our cooking and gardening activities.

Project evaluation showed strong community support for these initiatives, and also positive health and well-being, food security and social inclusion outcomes.  In the words of two mothers involved in the program:

“My son Ollie will try new foods in cooking club that he would never try at home.   I can’t believe the difference it makes.  He’s getting more interested in cooking at home now too which is good.” - Alicia

“I used to only send pre-packaged snack food in my kids lunches, but now they ask for carrots and fruit.  It’s good that they’re eating better”. - Angela

Our funders, the Tasmanian Food Security Council have been very clear in their positive evaluation of our project which stands us in good stead for ongoing funding. 

Our vision is to build upon these successes in Glenorchy, and roll the project out to other local government organisations across the State.  We would then take these learnings to develop comprehensive gardening, cooking and sustainability resources for use by schools and community groups state-wide. 

We are grateful to Sophie Calic, the project officer for her work over the past year, and we wish her well as she prepares for the birth of her third child.