Following severe flooding in October 2022, Nexus Primary Health led community consultation through the RESPOND Project.
The Seymour Food Relief Collaborative (the collaborative) is a strength-based partnership of businesses, community and service providers addressing food security and improving health of children and families in the Mitchell Shire.
Collaborative members share the common aim of making food relief more equitable, accessible, available, and sustainable for community members requiring assistance.
With local community experts providing their experience and insights, a clear picture of the current need for emergency food relief emerged. Barriers and gaps in services available and potential stigma community members may face, when accessing food relief were also discussed.
The collaborative meets monthly with Nexus Primary Health providing support via the Healthy Kids Mitchell (Mitchell Shire RESPOND Project) platform. Healthy Kids Mitchell has a focus on healthy eating, increasing access to local nutritious fresh and non-perishable food items to those in need by expanding food relief programs and planning sustainable food relief initiatives.
Partners include, but are not limited to, The Centre for Continuing Education Inc, Shepparton Foodshare, Seymour Toyota, Mitchell Shire Council and Foodbank Australia.
Through the focus on sustainability and food systems approaches in a changing climate, the collaborative seeks to also tackle the local impact of climate change and its impact on health.
By establishing a local network with key stakeholders, a collaborative approach was identified by the community to address local issues.
The model leverages existing networks and services, is scalable, adaptable and can be tailored to boost food security in other communities.