Building Local Food Communities

Want to have more of a say about what's on your dinner plate?

Interested in becoming a more active food citizen and how we build local food resilience?

Then join us for this series of three interactive workshops focusing on taking individual, community and regional action within the food system to build local food resilience and local food communities.

We will explore topics such as urban food gardening, sharing food in community and building local food hubs.

Co-hosted by The Food Embassy and the Hub library, we're excited to be bringing you this series featuring 3 amazing guest speakers.

The sessions will be packed full of informative content, practical skills, and take-home resources for you to use in the workshop and beyond. Plus there will be lots of time to chat and contribute to the conversation.

Through out the series we will explore the idea of a locally led food project that the Food Embassy can provide mentoring support for after the workshop series. So bring ideas, thoughts on anything you think will contribute to food resilience and sustainability in your region.

A light snack and drink will be provided.

Be inspired, be challenged but most of all be changed.

This workshop series is supported by the City of Onkaparinga.

Building Local Food Communities #1: Food Democracy at an Individual Level (Sunday 11th October, 3 -430pm)

For the first workshop, our special guest is Steven Hoepfner, a local gardener and co founded of one of Adelaide's first urban farm; Wagtail Farm.

Steven is passionate about ecology, growing food and re-localising food production. He began growing veggies by accident in his Qld backyard in 2006 and has been hooked on fresh, tasty and wholesome home-grown produce ever since. Steven has been employed in Ireland growing veggies in a kitchen garden for a local restaurant, managed a large market garden and orchard in the Adelaide Hills and ran Wagtail Urban Farm in Mitchell Park for over a decade. Steven loves turning waste into fertility and gleaning excess nutrients from the environment both with edible weeds and bush tucker.

Building Local Food Communities #2: Food Democracy at a Community Level (Sunday 18th October 3 -430pm)

For the second of three workshops, our special guest is Beck Stevens,

Beck is a health and food educator, horticulturalist and an Agricultural Scientist with a passion for building strong, resilient, and sustainable communities that are linked with their food sources and have a sense of environmental stewardship through sustainable and regenerative land management practices. She is a founding member and co-ordinator of ‘Happy Patch Community Garden’ and ‘The Happy Pantry Community Food Co-operative’, both located in Aberfoyle Park.

Beck and her family live on a semi-self sufficient permaculture designed property in the Adelaide hills where they grow an abundance of organic, seasonal produce and run a small flock of chickens. Beck is highly experienced in a wide range of food preservation techniques and regularly runs community food workshops, specialising in the Fowler’s Vacola method. 

Building Local Food Communities #3: Food Democracy at a Regional Level (Sunday 25th October, 3pm - 430pm) 

For the third workshop, our special guest is Linda Enright who has worked in the local government sector for over 15 years. She is currently the Healthy Lifestyle Officer at the City of Onkaparinga advocating for good food for all. This role supports a wide range of food initiatives promoting health and wellbeing in our community. Linda has had a key role in the SA Food Systems Network group and was involved in a submission and presentation to the SA enquiry into Federal Standing Committee on Agriculture’s Inquiry into food security in Australia.Their submission along with others from SA, urged the Committee to consider a National Food Policy, which was subsequently recommended by the Committee as a National Food Plan.

Linda has played a role in advocating to support a stronger role for local government in this space. She has lead a successful scoping study for a Social Supermarket for the Onkaparinga region which has now been funded.  She is passionate about building a sense of community and the sharing of stories, skills and knowledge.

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• Workshop #1 - Sunday -, 11th October 3pm - 430pm (Food Democracy at an Individual Level)

• Workshop #2 - Sunday - 18th October , 3pm - 430pm (Food Democracy at a Community Level)

• Workshop #3 - Sunday - 25th October 3pm - 430pm ( Food Democracy at a Regional Level)

We encourage you to attend all 3 sessions. However a limited number of tickets are also available for single sessions.