Community food provisioning in metropolitan Sydney
Seeking to understand how community food provisioning initiatives (CFPIs) care for people and planet in the context of climate change, the barriers and constraints to their practices and how these challenges might be overcome.
About the project
The research focuses on community-led food initiatives such as food banks, food pantries, community gardens, food cooperatives, social enterprises and food box schemes.
Fieldwork for the research was conducted in 2019 and involved creating a database and developing a typology of community food provisioning initiatives in Metropolitan Sydney. Through conducting GIS mapping, the study looked at how CFPIs are distributed across the city and provides insight into their contribution to the greater urban food system.
Drawing on insights from a qualitative questionnaire, interviews with 10 initiatives and document/website analysis, the research contributes to an understanding of how diverse food initiatives address justice issues in the context of climate change, increasing demand for food relief and insecure supply.
The study provides insight into the geographical distribution, type and scale of CFPIs in Sydney at a particular point in time. The research in 2019-2020 was funded by a small Macquarie University New Staff grant.
Please read our 2021 Research Highlights report which has been written to provide an overview of the project. A follow up questionnaire with Food Relief providers was conducted in 2022 to document the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the demand and supply of food relief. A briefing note from the results has been collated and can be found here. The project is ongoing and further updates will be provided on this page.
Associated publications
- Healy, S., Chitranshi, B., Diprose, G. Eskelinen, T., Madden, A. Santala, I. and Williams, M. (2020) Planetary Food Commons and Postcapitalist Post-COVID Food Futures. Development.
- Miriam J. Williams & Lillian Tait (2022) Diverse infrastructures of care: community food provisioning in Sydney, Social & Cultural Geography.
- Williams, M. J. and Sharpe, E. L. (2022) Feminist Ethics of Care in Urban Food Governance, Chapter 6 in Moragues-Faus, A., Clark, Jill. K., Battersby, J. and Davies, A.(eds) Routledge Handbook of Urban Food Governance, Routledge.
- Williams, M. J. and Tait, L. (2021) The Diverse Community Food Provisioning Initiatives of Sydney: Research Highlights, Macquarie University.
- Williams, M. J., Pilkington, A. and Parker, C. (2022) The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on emergency food relief providers across Sydney, Briefing Note, Macquarie University.
You can also read more about the project in these two blog posts:
- Community Food Provisioning in Sydney: Food Insecurity and care
- Sharing about Sydney’s Community Food Sector
Research team
- Dr Miriam Williams (Chief Investigator)
- Lillian Tait (Research Assistant)
- Chloe Parker (Student Intern Semester 1 2022)
- Alinta Pilkington (Student Intern Semester 2 2022).
Further information
For further information please contact Dr Miriam Williams at miriam.williams@mq.edu.au.