Helen Burnet | #2 Candidate for Clark | Deputy Mayor & Councillor, Hobart City Council
An affordable healthy diet shouldn't hinge on your socioeconomic status, but in Tasmania that's the sad reality so many face. Food insecurity in Tasmania increased from 28% to 36% between 2022 and 2023, meaning a healthy diet is increasingly becoming out of reach for too many in our community. It's time to change that.
The Greens have today released a plan to relieve food insecurity, and fight for:
- An additional $3 million per year for food relief programs (e.g.: Loaves and Fishes and Foodbank)
- Funding for five food hubs, expanding the Food Education and Preservation Project, and a social enterprise café in the Sandy Bay campus.
- Ongoing funding to neighbourhood houses to support their cost of living initiatives, including food security programs.
"Food brings us together and is essential to community, cultural expression, health and happiness, but Tasmanians are changing the way they eat just to make ends meet.
"The cost of living is hurting Tasmanians. Everyone deserves the right to live in safety with a roof over their head, food in their cupboard, medical care and hot showers, but right now families are having to decide which of these they will have to sacrifice - and often its food.
"Parents and pet owners are putting their dependents first with no choice but to go without themselves. For these reasons it is of critical importance the food relief sector is afforded increased funding to enable it to continue to support the growing number of Tasmanian families in need.
"This will lead to better health outcomes across the board - we know food insecurity drives obesity, as fresh foods are replaced by cheap fast foods, and that poor nutrition, chronic disease, and low life expectancy are all linked.
"Unless the government steps up to ease the pressure, too many Tasmanians will keep struggling to put food on the table."
