to make the food systems of the Illawarra and Shoalhaven "more sustainable, healthy and equitable" for growers and consumers.

“Eventually, I would love every single student that comes to UOW to have some exposure to growing their own food,” she says.

Karen’s research aims to understand food inequity in the Illawarra Shoalhaven region. This semester at UOW, she has two PhD students and several honours students working with her as part of Food Warriors.

“We’re going to survey our students after the program and see what they’ve learned, if they’ve changed their perceptions about where they shop, things like that. And hopefully they’ll be able to grow some food of their own as well,” Karen says.

“Growing food is a skill and unless you’re given the opportunity to engage in it, you might not do it.”

Path to better food systems

Karen started as a dietician and then became interested in food research.

“For the past couple of years, I’ve been focusing on sustainable food systems and thinking about where food comes from, where it’s grown, what we eat and how that affects the climate – the environmental impact,” Karen says.

Karen uses her research to improve the Illawarra's food landscape. 

“I have a four-year fellowship from the Australian Research Council to do a project to transform the food system of the Illawarra and Shoalhaven to be more sustainable, healthy and equitable,” she says.

“It’s a massive project, and there’s lots of moving parts.”

Survey finds food insecurity is a 'big problem' 

Last year, Karen collaborated with Dr Katherine Kent on a survey of more than 700 households in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven, called ‘Let’s Talk About Food’. The survey asked residents for their thoughts on their food system and access to fresh food in their communities.

“For example, food insecurity is a big problem in our region. That means people are unable to access healthy and nutritious food because they can’t afford it, or can’t access that kind of food,” she says.

“There’s a lot of potential opportunities to work with community centres and make food more available to people.”

According to the survey, 38% of surveyed households experienced food insecurity in the past year, with 12% severely affected; 30% of parents reported anxiety or inability to afford balanced meals for their kids; and over 70% of people surveyed at community centres reported experiencing food insecurity.

“People want more access to food grown locally," Karen says. "But something interesting we found was that there are a number of small producers all the way down the coast, but there isn’t the infrastructure to process, store or transport those foods. So they all go up to Sydney markets and are brought back by independent supermarkets and green grocers.” 

Task Force to help local growers

In April, Karen collaborated with Healthy Cities Australia, Fair Food and leading community groups to launch the Food Futures Illawarra Shoalhaven Task Force with Regional Development Australia (RDA Illawarra Shoalhaven).

“We’ve convened a committee and we’re now going to be launching new activities – there’s a number of things we want to do,” Karen says.

The taskforce would like to create more local infrastructure to help growers and food producers to store and sell their products locally.

“We’re also doing work in the community, working with producers and mapping the food environment – how healthy and unhealthy food outlets are,” Karen says.

“If people want to get food directly from the producer, there’s not a lot of opportunity for that to occur. There are some farmers markets in places like Kiama held every week, but cost of living is a massive issue right now and some people can't get there. They might be working or don’t have transport, or are facing other barriers.”

In mapping the food landscape in Illawarra and Shoalhaven, Karen and her team have found that from 1924 food outlets in the area, 44% are classified as unhealthy options (fast-food, takeaway and pubs). Cafes, restaurants and bakeries account for 41% of outlets in the ‘less healthy’ category, and healthy outlets (supermarkets, greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers and sandwich/sushi bars) make up only 15%.

This means healthy outlets are outnumbered in the region: for every one healthy outlet, there are six unhealthy outlets. 

“The cost of food is an overarching factor. We have a lot more people in the lower socioeconomic bracket than what is average for the state,” Karen says.

“Some people find it difficult to prepare healthy meals. They might not necessarily have been taught to do that and sometimes it’s cheaper and easier to get a bucket of fried chips than it is to buy the potatoes and go home and make a dish. That’s what we call food literacy, and it’s a factor we want to address.”

Out of Africa, into the Illawarra

Karen grew up in Botswana, on desert country in Africa, where she developed an understanding and appreciation for self-sufficient food systems.

“Our food system was kind of non-existent. All the fresh food was brought on trucks from South Africa once a week, and we often missed out because my mum was late to the greengrocer,” she says.

“I grew up where we valued food a lot. It was a desert, so we were constantly talking about rain. Pula means rain in Botswana's language, and it’s very, very important to the people there. The flag is mostly blue because of the significance of rain, in fact.”

What's stopping volunteers

Food Warrior participant and PhD student Sara Munnelly is investigating the factors that influence students' decisions to participate in volunteering programs such as community gardening. 

“Young people are time poor; lots of people have two jobs and other commitments,” she says.

“I think there’s a benefit to being able to put it on a resume for their future, but they need to understand what they can get out of it with the limited time they have.

“If they can get free food and experience and learn about growing then I think that’s a good opportunity and volunteering where you can get something out of it.”