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Please note that due to copyright law, we are unable to post full-text copies of these publications unless at least one author is a member of this community of practice, and they have copyright permission from the journal itself. 
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​If you are an author of any of the below and would like to add your contact details, please contact us ASAP. 
June 2018

Charitable Food Systems’ Capacity to Address Food Insecurity: An Australian Capital City Audit​

Christina M. Pollard, Bruce Mackintosh, Cathy Campbell, Deborah Kerr, Andrea Begley, Jonine Jancey, Martin Caraher, Joel Berg and Sue Booth

http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/6/1249​

Australian efforts to address food insecurity are delivered by a charitable food system (CFS) which fails to meet demand. The scope and nature of the CFS is unknown. This study audits the organisational capacity of the CFS within the 10.9 square kilometres of inner-city Perth, Western Australia. A desktop analysis of services and 12 face-to-face interviews with representatives from CFS organisations was conducted. All CFS organisations were not-for–profit and guided by humanitarian or faith-based values. The CFS comprised three indirect services (IS) sourcing, banking and/or distributing food to 15 direct services (DS) providing food to recipients. DS offered 30 different food services at 34 locations feeding over 5670 people/week via 16 models including mobile and seated meals, food parcels, supermarket vouchers, and food pantries. Volunteer to paid staff ratios were 33:1 (DS) and 19:1 (IS). System-wide, food was mainly donated and most funding was philanthropic. Only three organisations received government funds. No organisation had a nutrition policy. The organisational capacity of the CFS was precarious due to unreliable, insufficient and inappropriate financial, human and food resources and structures. System-wide reforms are needed to ensure adequate and appropriate food relief for Australians experiencing food insecurity.

​For further information:  Sue Booth <sue.booth@flinders.edu.au>, Christina Pollard <c.pollard@curtin.edu.au>
April 2017

Promoting Food Pantry Environments that Encourage Nutritious Eating Behaviours

Carmen Byker Shanks
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

An ecologic framework is useful for considering the multiple influences that individual eating behaviors and social, physical, and macro-level environments have on food choices. Moreover, these individual and environmental variables also influence nutrition-related overweight, obesity, and chronic disease rates. Eating behaviors of food-insecure individuals are determined by a complex range of factors from individual food choices and consumption patterns to macrolevel policies that determine the availability and cost of foods in an individual’s food environment. The nutritional quality of foods at food pantries is limited by the foods made available to the organization from food banks, other donors, and purchases. A food pantry client’s dietary quality is determined by the food made available in the food pantry and foods procured outside of the food pantry.15 Food and nutrition practitioners can play a critical role on this front to ensure that food pantry food environments support clients in making food choices that promote food security and high dietary quality. Specifically, food and nutrition practitioners can partner with emergency food providers to influence the food supply, the food environment, and nutrition education at food pantries. In addition, food and nutrition practitioners can connect clients to other important resources that promote self-sufficiency.

​To request a PDF of the full text:  : cbykershanks@montana.edu
Feb 2017           Can Giving Clients a Choice in Food Selection Help to Meet Their Nutritional Needs?: Investigating a Novel Food Bank Approach for Asylum Seekers

Feb 2017            Food as a discretionary item: the impact of welfare payment changes on low-income single mother's food choices and strategies

April 2017          Investigating Responses to Food Insecurity Among HIV Positive People in Resource Rich Settings: A Systematic Review 
Oct 2016

Food Aid Provision in Metropolitan Melbourne: A Mixed Methods Study

Fiona H. McKay & Hayley McKenzie
Deakin University

This study used a mixed methods approach, incorporating a desktop review, online survey, and semistructured interview, to investigate how providers of food aid in metropolitan Melbourne are experiencing changes because of an increased demand for services. The findings of this study indicate that though many providers report an increased demand, the complex needs of clients, including issues of housing, intergenerational poverty, and limited education and employment opportunities, make addressing food insecurity a challenge for food aid providers.

​To request a PDF of the full text:  fiona.mckay@deakin.edu.au
November 2016

An impact evaluation of the FoodMate programme: Perspectives of homeless young people and staff 

Sarah J Meiklejohn, Liza Barbour and Claire E Palermo 
Health Education Journal 2017 

ABSTRACT Objectives: Food insecurity remains an issue for vulnerable populations in developed countries. The potential dietary and food security impacts of nutrition education programmes in Australia remain largely undocumented. This study investigated the impacts of an eight-session nutrition education programme delivered within community case management services for young people experiencing homelessness. Design and setting: A qualitative case study was undertaken in a community-based youth housing agency in Western Melbourne, Australia. Methods: Seven semi-structured interviews and two focus groups were conducted with a purposive sample of 10 past programme graduates and five youth service staff. Data were thematically analysed using a phenomenological lens. Results: The impacts of the programme were described by four themes: (1) the nutrition education programme created a platform for social engagement, (2) reduced reliance on emergency food relief for participants, (3) participants developed food-related knowledge and skills and (4) the programme was seen as a step towards food security for young people. These impacts were dependent on a myriad of personal and programme-related characteristics. Personal characteristics included participants’ intrinsic motivating factors to change their behaviours or a pre-existing interest in nutrition. Programme characteristics included the programme’s flexible structure and facilitation by caseworkers that were known to the young people. Conclusion: Study findings highlight the potential impacts of a nutrition education programme on dietary behaviours and food security status when embedded within community-based services.

​To request a PDF of the full text:  liza.barbour@monash.edu or sarah.meiklejohn@monash.edu 
November 2016

Implementing the Right to Food in Australia

Rebecca Lindberg,  Martin Caraher, Kate Wingrove
Victorian Journal of Home Economics 2016 (Volume 55, Number 2, p. 25-29)

ABSTRACT: The idea of universal human rights is a powerful one. It says that every person, wherever they are born and regardless of their background, income, race, gender or any other social status, is entitled to the enjoyment of certain inalienable and fundamental rights. In this paper we describe the international context that enshrines the human right to adequate food and then explore whether and how this is fulfilled in contemporary Australia, in light of ongoing food insecurity. A case study of an emerging non-government organisation called the Right to Food Coalition is provided to illustrate how members of civil society are attempting to use international law and human rights frameworks to improve accountability and action on food insecurity in Australia. We then discuss how teachers may wish to address some of the issues raised in this paper via the new Victorian Food Studies curriculum.​

​To request a PDF of the full text:  k.wingrove@deakin.edu.au
May 2016

Exploring nutrition capacity in Australia's charitable food sector

Kate Wingrove, Liza Barbour,Claire Palermo
Nutrition & Dietetics
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​To request a PDF of the full text: k.wingrove@deakin.edu.au or liza.barbour@monash.edu  
May 2016

Challenges and opportunities for measuring the impact of a nutrition programme amongst young people at risk of food insecurity: A pilot study

Liza Barbour, Melissa Ho, Zoe Davidson, Claire Palermo
Nutrition Bulletin

Abstract available here.​
To request a PDF of the full text: liza.barbour@monash.edu
April 2016

Measurement of the dimensions of food insecurity in developed countries: A systematic literature review

Stephanie Ashby, Suzanne Kleve, Rebecca McKechnie,Claire Palermo
Public Health Nutrition

Abstract available here.​
To request a PDF of the full text: claire.palermo@monash.edu
Nov 2015

A longitudinal study of the cost of food in Victoria influenced by geography and nutritional quality​

Claire Palermo, Julia McCartan, Sue Kleve, Kompal Sinha, Alan Shiell
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health

Abstract available here.​
To request a PDF of the full text: claire.palermo@monash.edu
Jan  2016

The role of food banks in addressing food insecurity: A systematic review​

Chantelle Bazerghi, Fiona H. McKay, Matthew Dunn
J Community Health  

Abstract available here.
​To request a PDF of the full text: chantelle.b@asrc.org.au
Nov 2015

Food security in Australia: Implications for general practitioners

Rebecca Lindberg, Mark Lawrence, Lisa Gold, Sharon Friel, Olivia Pegram
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, AFP

Full text available here.
July 2015

Food bank usage is a poor indicator of food insecurity: Insights from Canada

Rachel Loopstra, Valerie Tarasuk
Social Policy and Society, no. 14, pp 443-455

Abstract available here.
May 2015

Household food insecurity is a stronger marker of adequacy of nutrient intakes among Canadian compared to American youth and adults

Sharon Kirkpatrick, Kevin Dodd, Ruth Parsons, Carmina Ng, Didier Garriguet, Valerie Tarasuk. 
The Journal of Nutrition
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Abstract available here. 
Feb 2015

Still serving hot soup? Two hundred years of a charitable food sector in Australia: a narrative review

Rebecca Lindberg, Jillian Whelan, Mark Lawrence, Lisa Gold, Sharon Friel
​Australian New Zealand Journal of Public Health

Abstract available here.
To request a copy of the full text PDF: Rebecca.Lindberg@vu.edu.au
Sept 2014

Access and affordability of nutritious food in metropolitan Melbourne

Adam Rossimel, Sun S Han, Kirsten Larsen, Claire Palermo
Nutrition & Dietetics 

Full text available here.
March 2013

Social health and nutrition impacts of community kitchens: A systematic review

Marina Iacovou, Deanna C Pattieson, Helen Truby, Claire Palermo 
Public Health Nutrition

Full text available here.
August 2007

Development of a healthy food basket for Victoria 

Claire Palermo, Alice Wilson 
 Australia and New Zealand Journal of Public Health

Abstract available here. 
To request a PDF of the full text: claire.palermo@monash.edu
2001

Food security and poverty in Australia: Challenges
for dietitians

Sue Booth, Alison Smith 
Australian Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics
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Full text available here.