In Melbourne, 1 in 3 residents are food insecure. Many of them are students.
Research - including our own - indicates that across Australia, up to 53% of tertiary and vocational students are food insecure!
That’s why Just Food and the City of Melbourne are providing students with free, delicious and dignified meals - no questions asked.
This is Well Fed!
About Well Fed
Food insecurity is more pressing than ever: data suggests that up to 53% of tertiary students in Australia are currently facing food insecurity. In 2023, our Fed Up project investigated food insecurity at William Angliss Institute and found that 44% of its students were food insecure. Students now face mounting cost-of-living pressures, in addition to high student fees (particularly for international students). With high inflation rates and the cost of rent, food and fuel increasing, students continue to struggle in accessing healthy and affordable food at a critical and formative time in their lives when a nourishing diet is essential to their capacity to learn, focus and grow. The City of Melbourne is committed to reducing food insecurity in their communities by 25% by 2025. In alignment with this target Just Food Collective is proud to introduce Well Fed: A Student Food Project. As a part of the Social Investment Partnerships Program and funded by the City of Melbourne, our project embarks on a series of activities, advocacy, and future planning to reduce student food insecurity in Melbourne. Well Fed is about more than “food relief”, it’s about teaching good-life skills through food. Food insecure students experience greater hurdles to academic achievement, as well as isolation due to more limited social interactions and a range of mental and physical health problems. Well Fed breaks down barriers preventing disadvantaged students from successfully completing their studies through a unique and dignified model to promote food security and wellbeing.
The Well Fed model
is divided into four
key interventions
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We supply students with free food that’s joyful, nourishing and delicious.
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We hire student interns and induct volunteers to create a network of friends who gain work experience.
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We teach students growing, cooking and eating skills.
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We raise awareness of student food security through state-wide advocacy efforts.
Learn more…
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Just Food Collective members are from a wide range of professions and backgrounds. Some of us are students, some chefs, and some researchers. We partnered with the University of Tasmania’s Sandy Murray to understand how we could investigate the levels of food insecurity at our own university. We worked with the University of Melbourne’s Sara Guest to write the final report, including the recommendations which were informed by their work, A working toolkit for addressing food insecurity at Australian universities.
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We are in the process of developing an advocacy network to campaign for more funding of student food security response. If you work at a university, are a student, or are a part of a student union, we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at hello@justfood.org.au.
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Just Food Collective volunteers lead the Fed Up! project last year in their spare time. For the next two years the Well Fed project will be funded by the City of Melbourne as a part of the Council’s Social Investment Partnership Program funding.
