Our Team

Prudence Rothwell grew up on a dairy farm in Northern Victoria and moved to Melbourne 12 years ago to complete a Bachelor of Environment at the University of Melbourne.

Then one fateful day, a delicious meat pie led her to over five years of involvement with the Victorian farmers’ market sector (and for those wondering, it was a Warialda Belted Galloway chunky beef burgundy pie from Castlemaine Farmers’ Market).

In 2016, Prudence was awarded an International Specialised Skills Institute Fellowship which enabled her to travel to the US for 10 weeks to investigate farmers’ market best practice and opportunities for the Australian sector. She then embarked on a Master of Food Systems and Gastronomy at William Angliss Institute, graduating in 2021 while working part time at a butcher shop and as a customer support consultant at an agricultural software company. All of these experiences have increased her awareness of, and interest in food system transformation…segue, Open Food Network!

Prudence’s role as Enterprise Training and Resource Officer is funded through the Working for Victoria initiative. As part of Open Food Network’s Knowledge and Capabilities team, her role is about identifying and responding to the resourcing needs of Open Food Network partners, community food enterprises and producers through customer support, content creation, communications, partnership development and project management.