May Newsletter 2023
Hello fellow Justie!
It’s been a loooong time since our last newsletter, apologies 😅. BUT we’ve remained active with Just Food while also working our day jobs. Some of us recently became Food Studies graduates and are thrilled to be finally getting paid to do food system’s work! For example, Amy is the new Food Hub Coordinator at Common Ground Project while Carol and Savannah have been working hard with our friends over at Sustain: the Australian Food Network.
So what else has been going on with JFC since our last newsletter??
Earlier this year our Fed Up! campaign culminated with the release of our 29-page report highlighting the food insecurity struggles of William Angliss Institute (WAI) students. Our research suggests that at WAI, a devastating
44% of students are food insecure and
20% are very food insecure
Moreover, half of students younger than 25 and over half of all international students are food insecure! Our report recommends achievable steps and strategies universities can implement to address food insecurity on campus. We are currently in discussion with WAI on a few potential responses (fingers crossed for a big grant to help here). And to be clear this is not just a William Angliss problem - our data is inline with that of tertiary students across all of Australia. Both governments and universities need to do more.
Our Youth World Food Garden project has entered its final stretch. This series of workshops evolved from our first ever successful grant application. With participants aged 14 to 25 we’ve explored many of the challenges inherent in our food system and have helped them develop valuable skills in growing, cooking and sharing good food. Our final workshop ‘Why Waste It?’ will be on May 20th and still has spots available - come to the Oakhill Food Justice Farm and get your hands dirty with us!
We’ve also launched our first GoFundme campaign! Check out our cute little promo (and first YouTube) video below.
The campaign aims to raise $3000 for our organisation. As you know, we’re a small not-for-profit group run by volunteers who are mostly students and/or working full-time jobs! Please consider a contribution to help us:
Afford public liability insurance
This will help us qualify for future grants, and cover our backs (and yours) for future community events
Pay our annual expenses
Website fees, meeting room bookings and Consumer Affairs reporting fees 🥵
Events
Food insecurity action, more workshops, and community events like food and seed swaps are in the works
Feed hungry students!
The Fed Up! research project was done with zero funding! We are now pushing for a FREE student pantry and maybe more at Angliss…
To those of you who have donated already, we are so incredibly grateful!! We love collective action. To those who haven’t, what are you waiting for, seriously?
😜😜
If you would like to support Just Food in other ways, simply follow us online. We are very active on Instagram and we’ve also recently set up a Facebook group. Here we’ve made it easier for people like you to connect and get involved with us! We’ll be posting announcements, social night updates, new workshops and volunteering opportunities. So go on, give us a follow, we’d love to chat ❤️
That’s all for now, thanks for reading along!
