An electronic publication from the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet
Issue 9, November 2000 - February 2001 : ISSN 1329-3362
Conference abstracts and papers
12th National Health Promotion Conference: Inequalities in health
- reflecting back, stepping forward.
29 October - 1 November 2000, Hotel Sofitel, Melbourne, Victoria.
David Riches
The Mount Druitt Food
Project - a diet of social capital.
The Mount Druitt Food Project in Western Sydney exists to improve access to healthier nutritional choices, using the premise that food is a catalyst for improved social capital that influences local social networks and trust levels.
Mount Druitt is a disadvantaged area of Western Sydney where 32% of all households in Mount Druitt live in public housing, 46% of the population is aged under 25,the number of single parent households stands at 29% and the unemployment rate is 15.9%. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population is around five times higher than the Sydney average.
Complex factors affect access to healthy food in the area. Lack of public transport, lack of money, expensive home delivery services, ease of access to takeaway restaurants, poor supply and quality of fruit and vegetables, and poor access to more nutritious staple foods are the ingredients for poor diet.
The project has been developed on evidence that suggests food equity and access issues impact adversely on poorer populations, and that there are linkages between the degree of equity in a community relating to family income and the degree of social capital. Local activity is driven by strategies that focus on school breakfast programs, community gardens, health policy in local government and bush tucker strategies for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population.
The Mount Druitt Food Project is re1atively new, having been in place since late 1999, but has already achieved a considerable shift in both resource allocation to disadvantaged segments of the population, and community commitment and cooperation.
The approach started with an 'open door', and strong partnerships with local government, the Koori community, the University of Western Sydney, local health service providers, local churches and the Eastern Sydney Area Health Service have developed.
The project provides a best practice partnership approach that can be utilised when working with disadvantaged metropolitan communities. It shows there is a need to compensate for the societal imbalance imposed on poorer populations. If the role of health promoters is to reorient local systems to bring about sustainable health gain then our job is to facilitate a process that promotes local issue ownership, through effective partnerships.
The project demonstrates that healthier food choice projects are a 'best buy' for health promotion practitioners wishing to impact on both healthier nutritional choices and societal trust.
