Introducing Our Newest Pilot Project: Increasing Financial Access to Food Through Community Food Enterprises
Funded by Citi Foundation
Image credit: Baw Baw Food Hub
At Open Food Network, we believe everyone should have access to fresh, regeneratively grown and locally-sourced food, regardless of their financial situation. That’s why we’ve launched a household level food subsidy pilot project. This initiative is an emergent process, investigating future solutions to support food accessibility for low-income households and communities across Victoria.
What Will The Pilot Project Entail?
Funded by the inaugural Citi Foundation Global Innovation Challenge, this project aims to strengthen community food systems by making regenerative food and short food supply chains financially accessible to more people and communities. We will do this by providing food-insecure households with vouchers for food that are redeemable at participating community food enterprises (CFEs).
Three webinars are incorporated into the project design. These sessions will occur at key points throughout the project’s timeline -pre project launch, mid project update and end of project findings. They will focus on increasing the project’s visibility and facilitating knowledge-sharing across the food security sector. Our first webinar is approaching and is open to all interested parties in the food security field.
How Will it Work?
2024
Food Subsidy Fund:
Establish a fund to receive and allocate financial donations for the project.
2024
Voucher System:
Develop software to transform donations into food vouchers that can be redeemed at participating CFE’s.
2025
The Pilot:
Distribute a minimum of AUD$65,000 in food vouchers to low-income households via community service delivery partners.
2025
Evaluation:
Throughout the pilot, we’ll measure outcomes to assess effectiveness and plan future improvements.
A Collaborative Approach
This pilot embraces collaboration with Community Food Enterprises (CFEs). CFEs can be defined as locally-owned/-controlled food businesses or ventures founded around a desire to create positive outcomes for the communities they serve. By working closely with CFEs, we aim to create a project tailored to unique community needs while strengthening local food systems.
Participatory Design
_______________
We’ll utilise participatory design with CFEs through interviews, meetings and product testing to shape the project’s outputs.
Support
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CFEs receive project management support, marketing assistance, and funds to support their participation in the project.
Want to Stay Informed?
Sign up for our mailing list to receive updates on the Food Subsidy Pilot Project, including news about upcoming webinars open to anyone interested in the project’s progress, as well as information on ways to contribute or get involved as a Community Food Enterprise, government or funding body, or values-aligned organisation.
Or for more information regarding the Food Subsidy Pilot Project you can contact the project manager here.
The Food Subsidy Pilot Project has been funded thanks to Citi Group Foundation.
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