Chef and child health campaigner Jamie Oliver and his celebrity judging panel have announced the five winners of the inaugural Food Hero Awards carefully chosen from more than 1200 entries from across Australia.
The Awards celebrate unsung food heroes who are positively changing the Australian food system. Entries across every category were incredibly high from Food Educator of the Year, Food Kindness Award, Food for Movement, Community or School Food Champion to Food Entrepreneur of the Year.
Winners came from across Australia including Mulan Aboriginal Community in Western Australia, Mooroopna Victoria, Kalkaringi Northern Territory, Melbourne Victoria and South Albury New South Wales to celebrate their incredible work in making sure Australian kids are well nourished and supported, often working in incredibly challenging situations with high levels of food insecurity.
The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation also received a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of its 20-years of operation in more than 1000 schools and early learning centres around Australia. The award comes just as the foundation launches its national fundraising campaign, the Food Education Drive (FED).
Jamie Oliver says: "Australia has always had a special place in my heart and I was very excited to launch the Food Hero Awards here. We have kicked it off in the most incredible way and I want to congratulate all the winners – you’re all utterly brilliant. All those involved have gone above and beyond in our first year. There’s such an appetite to shine a light on best practice, as well as passionate, caring people who devote themselves to inspiring the next generation.”
Food Educator of the Year:
Karen Dack from EON Aboriginal Foundation in the Northern Territory.
Karen is a Project Manager at Kalkaringi School and is deeply passionate about educating the community on how to grow, harvest and cook fresh produce.
She’s also part of the EON Thriving Communities Program which teaches the importance of nutrition to reduce diabetes and heart disease in remote communities. Karen works closely with students, their families and local communities to find positive, culturally appropriate ways to promote the inclusion of vegetables in diets. Through capacity building and enhancing food literacy, the program has allowed families to take action, like supplementing store-bought options with homegrown produce from their gardens, empowering a generational impact on health.
The program has yielded impressive results, demonstrating a decline in type 2 diabetes rates among the communities that fully participate. In addition to Kalkaringi School, Karen also spent two years teaching at Minyerri School in the Northern Territory. During those few weeks, attendance increased by 15% and her impact was so big, a community dog was named ‘Broccoli!’
Food Kindness Award:
Leanne Johnson, Kids Cooking and Caring Program at The Carevan Foundation in Albury Wodonga.
Leanne runs The Kids Cooking and Caring program, which is integral to The Carevan Foundation and aims to provide healthy, nutritious food to people in need within the community.
Created more than 10 years ago, the program sees meals prepared, primarily by students from local high schools and supplemented by Carevan volunteers and Mercy Connect, a not-for-profit supporting people with disabilities.
Between 175-300 meals are cooked each week, depending on demand or catering needs of community members experiencing homelessness, financial hardship or who are disadvantaged. For children living in disadvantaged situations, they have added food security from the program with nutritious meals and support from all volunteers on the program.
Through her work, Leanne is not only providing for the community, but she is also teaching students how to cook and care for others.
Food for Movement Award:
Principal Hayden Beaton and Wellbeing Co-ordinator Lisa Hueston from Mooroopna Primary School in Victoria.
Listed in the top 3% disadvantaged schools in Australia, with more than 76% of students having suffered or been exposed to significant trauma, Mooroopna Primary School in Victoria supports students to become autonomous life-long learners who contribute positively to their community.
At the heart of the school’s Student Wellbeing Program is its Healthy Food Program, which began after approximately 80% of students were either not bringing food to school or what they were bringing was unhealthy. In 2019 the school introduced ‘The Park Cafe’, converting its sports shed into a dining room and upgrading the school canteen. A full-time onsite Chef provides breakfast, morning and afternoon tea and a cooked lunch daily, free of charge, for every student. For some, this program offers the only decent meal they may get that day.
Community or School Food Champion:
Principal Michael Patrick and teachers Jessica Lulu and Gina Harcourt from John Pujajangka-Piyirin Catholic School at Mulan Aboriginal Community in WA.
The John Pujajangka-Piyirin Catholic School offers an outstanding cooking program where students are given the opportunity to prepare meals each week, utilising ingredients and produce from their kitchen garden, with the support and encouragement of staff. A portion of these meals are also delivered to community Elders each week, factoring cultural considerations at each state of meal preparation to ensure they meet the needs of the community.
The school also holds celebrations with the whole community where meals are cooked for students and their families. For their most recent NAIDOC Week celebration, students helped prepare kangaroo tails, damper, coleslaw and potato salad.
All teaching staff and admin actively participate and take on roles to help encourage and support the students in cooking and preparing the meals. Students at the school not only learn skills that will last a lifetime, but they are also using food they have grown and cooked to care for their whole community.
Being in a very remote school in Western Australia, resources and preparation is crucial, with staff working to prepare and plan out cooking meals and activities weeks, if not months, in advance.
Food Entrepreneur of the Year:
James McLennan, Co-founder and CEO of Farm My School and Founder of Grassroots Sustainability in Victoria.
James has focused his career on food systems education. His business Grassroots Sustainability focuses on the whole food cycle and bringing it back to the food we eat and the importance of eating local, seasonal, spray-free, nutrient-dense food.
Years of determination, passion and experience in the sustainability sector led him to create Farm My School with co-founder Ben Shaw. The groundbreaking model of food education transforms unused land within schools into regenerative market gardens that feed, educate and bring the community together.
Through connecting farmers with schools and partnering with local businesses, the program aims to provide healthy, organic produce to school families, the canteen and local residents, while also creating thriving neighbourhood hubs where learning, sharing and relationships are at its core.
The Farm My Food pilot school on the Bellarine Peninsula now boasts a fully operational 1.5-acre market garden, feeding nutrient dense food directly to the school and local community in the form of veggie boxes. The model is working on providing the school canteen with an array of fresh produce from the farm.
Lifetime Achievement Award:
Stephanie Alexander from The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation.
The Awards also recognised Stephanie Alexander for her amazing work in establishing The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, now celebrating its 20th year.
More than a million children, their families and broader communities have benefitted during the past 20 years from the Kitchen Garden Program, which launched in 2004 and operates in more than 1000 primary and secondary schools, early childhood services and community settings.
About 60% of schools are in communities with socio-education disadvantages and more than 50% of members are in remote or regional locations. The foundation provides the inspiration, information and professional development and support for educators to deliver pleasurable food education to children and young people in Australia.
To help ensure more children can continue to benefit from food education, Stephanie has also launched the Food Education Drive (FED) - a national fundraising campaign to generate much-needed support and awareness about the critical need to educate young Australians about where their food comes from and how to live healthy, resilient and happy lives.
