If you’ve been keeping your eye on our socials recently, you would have seen us do a little recruiting and sneakily touch on the idea of a food hub. You might have been wondering, what’s going on there?! Here’s everything you need to know about Healthy Cities’ new direction towards a food hub in the Illawarra.
The idea of a bricks-and-mortar space for our region is not new. In fact, Healthy Cities Australia (HCA) has been in conversations with our food rescue partners like OzHarvest, along with local food relief agencies, for a long time. This year, as part of our work in food rescue and relief funded by EPA NSW, we have continued to collaborate with our Food Rescue and Relief Working Group and had many conversations with amazing professionals in the sector that have repeated the need for physical logistical support time again. Every chat, forum or data survey over the past year seemed to always come back to the same idea: a physical, central food hub. As Healthy Cities always has, and always will, put people and community at the forefront of its work, we couldn’t not respond to this need any longer.
We are so happy to be welcoming our brand new Regional Food Hub Project Manager, Melinda Lawton, to the HCA team, who will be focusing solely on bringing this community vision to life.
The Current Challenge
More than 40 small food relief and rescue providers currently operate independently, each managing limited resources, storage, and logistics. This fragmentation restricts their collective ability to meet the growing demand for food relief and to efficiently capture surplus food from local producers, retailers, and hospitality outlets. As demand grows due to factors such as Australia’s cost-of-living crisis and domestic violence incidence, so too does the staff time these organisations dedicate to coordinate food relief. This is adding to the workload and pressure that community centres and service providers are experiencing in providing other essential services such as mental health support, housing services, referrals, social connection, and family and domestic violence support.
“It is heartbreaking that entire food operations remain unfunded, under-resourced, and reliant on donations, volunteers, and week-to-week deliveries. The need is undeniable, but without permanent resources, sustainable impact remains just out of reach.” – Community Centre Manager, ‘Food is the Glue: Community Centres in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven Use Food as a Gateway to Supporting Wellbeing & Connection’
The problem isn’t a lack of food, but a lack of resources to collect and distribute it.
The Illawarra Food Hub Vision
Over the next couple of years, Melinda, together with our Fair Food Coordinator Grace and our external partners, will be working hard to establish a regional food hub to coordinate, store, and redistribute rescued food for the region.
The Hub aims to centralise collection, refrigeration and distribution, streamline logistics, and strengthen collaboration between organisations and food rescue groups. This won’t only lift the burden of food relief from organisations, but also help streamline the process for local businesses and hospitality venues to be able to donate surplus food with ease. The overall result? Maximising resources and ensuring more food is saved from landfill and provided to the people who need it.
We know that the consolidation of operations provided by a hub is the most efficient approach that is working all over Australia, but don’t just take our word for it: we visited FareShare’s hub in Brisbane to find out for ourselves. Each year in Queensland alone, FoodBank delivers more than 500,000 kg of rescued food to FareShare Brisbane, which is then used to produce an incredible 30,000 meals a week. We were completely amazed seeing how this hub operates on the ground, and this is a clear demonstration of the scale and impact regional food hubs can achieve!
Introducing Melinda Lawton, Regional Food Hub Project Manager
1) Tell us a little about your background.
I’ve spent my career bringing people and projects together across community development, design, and infrastructure. I love turning great ideas into action and seeing projects make a real difference. Alongside this role, I’m also a local councillor in Kiama and the Global Chair of the Steering Committee for the Alliance for Healthy Cities, collaborating with communities around the world to create fairer, more sustainable places to live.
2) Why do you think a Food Hub is so crucial for the Illawarra?
A Food Hub in our Illawarra region will be a real game changer for our region. It’s about connecting local growers, producers, and community organisations so more people can access fresh, affordable food, while supporting local jobs and reducing waste. It’s a practical, positive step towards a stronger regional food system that looks after both people and the planet.
3) What drew you to the Regional Food Hub Project Manager role?
This project brings together everything I’m passionate about — community, collaboration, and sustainability. It’s a chance to co-design something that really works for our area and leaves a lasting impact.
4) What will you be working on first as you begin this project?
Over the next few months, I’ll be working with local partners to conduct a feasibility study, shape the business case, explore potential sites, and make sure the Food Hub reflects our community’s needs and ideas. I’m really looking forward to meeting more of you and hearing your thoughts as we build this exciting project together.
Stay tuned for more Illawarra Food Hub updates over the coming months.
