In June 2005 VicHealth funded eight food security projects in nine local government areas to work in partnership with local organisations, including community health services, to promote food security. Two projects were located in regional Victoria.
A key strategy of Food for All was to encourage local government to improve integrated planning to address factors that influence access to food, such as transport, housing, economic development, urban planning and land use. This approach was consistent with VicHealth’s emphasis on addressing the determinants of health that lie within the four environments: built, natural, social and economic.
The goals of the Food For All program:
- reduce local government system barriers and local infrastructure barriers to food security
- increase regular access to and consumption of a variety of foods, in particular fruit and vegetables, by people living in disadvantaged communities.
Objectives of the Food For All program:
- increase incorporation of food security and related issues into council integrated planning around policy, strategy and actions
- develop leadership and partnerships with community agencies to implement food security strategies that reduce barriers to food security
- initiate and support advocacy to reduce barriers to access and consumption of healthy food.
The program objectives were modified for the second phase (2008 to 2010), to encourage greater emphasis on influencing local government policy, planning and practice across the four environments for health (built, natural, economic and social) and in particular bringing health and urban planning closer together