Greens candidate for lord mayor and Ward 1 at the Wollongong local government elections in September Jess Whittaker says a Council appointed food coordinator would be the point of contact to help residents start a crop swap and establish a community garden.

“Remember that time when you had plenty of neighbours swapping their extra lemons, tomatoes, basil, parsley, or even sharing a few eggs,” Ms Whittaker said.

“People are finding it harder to buy good quality produce. They’re frustrated by the two large supermarket chains who have a stranglehold on our weekly shop. On top of that, growing quality produce is being affected by climate change. And I’m also finding that people are looking for small events like a crop swap or a community garden so they have more opportunities for connections in their local community.”

“Everywhere I go, while talking to the community, access to affordable, local food keeps coming up as an issue,” she said.

Ms Whittaker said one example of the power of local food projects is the Woonona Community Garden.

“In just over three years, Woonona Community Garden has built a thriving community garden where local residents from diverse backgrounds and gardening abilities work together to grow food, share the harvest, and build new friendships,” she said.

“The Greens will recharge the local food economy with our plan to fund a dedicated position on Council to act as a mediator for local food production and swaps. This role will be the point of contact for people wanting to start a community garden, a crop swap or other event based on local food production. It will also assist existing community gardens to build membership and look for new funding opportunities.

“We don’t want a situation where people are turned off starting a project because getting through Council’s red tape and bureaucracy is too hard. Greens councillors will be more supportive of people wanting to get involved in community building food projects.

“As a city, we should be actively looking at land that may be available for small-scale local food production. While talking with people another idea has been looking at developing resources that could help small urban farms on private land. We are seeing a few pop up. However these enterprises generally don’t receive support or encouragement from any level of government.

“A Council appointed local food coordinator could be the point of contact on council to help people wanting to start a crop swap to find a spot to host it, providing information on weeds that probably shouldn’t be swapped, access to tables and assistance with promoting the events. It’s important that the community leads when it comes to local food, but there is a lot that the council can do to give them encouragement. Sometimes people just need help to build their confidence to host an event like this, but after the first few runs they can be self-sustaining. At the moment the local food scene doesn’t get much attention and our new Greens on council will be committed to changing that.”

Story by Mick Roberts in the Bulli & Clifton Times, 28 August 2024.

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.

Greens candidate for Lord Mayor and Ward 1 Jess Whittaker is calling for a dedicated position in Council to encourage community gardens, crop swaps and urban farms to boost Wollongong’s resilience and development of local food systems.