Greens candidate for Lord Mayor Jess Whittaker said there currently wasn't a lot of support for the creation of community gardens.

"It's very hard to get through bureaucracy, especially in the initial phase when you're setting up," Ms Whittaker said.

"That's the hardest phase, to actually get these projects off the ground. So we want to support people who want to do local food projects in the Illawarra, and that's going to help us build our climate, resilience, cost of living relief, and building community.

"There's so many benefits that local food can bring to an area."

Ms Whittaker said the part-time role would cost around $60,000 a year, which she hoped could be funded from the next council budget.

"We already have a lot of staff doing amazing work in natural areas, such as restoring habitat. We'd hope that we can expand that to include local food," she said.

"There's so many things already happening that are really grassroots and being led by community. We just want to show that government can support that grassroots energy."

Story by Glen Humphries in the Illawarra Mercury, 26 August 2024.