The organisation will create plans for the broader community to access fresh foods and educate locals on healthy food lifestyles.

Guest speakers will talk about food insecurity and brainstorm ideas on overcoming these issues.

Organisations attending include Food Fairness Illawarra, Shoalhaven Anti-poverty Committee, The DENNY Foundation and the Australian Red Cross food mapping project. 

They will cover Food Fairness Shoalhaven’s strategies to overcome fresh food access issues over the next two years.

Judith Reardon from Shoalhaven Anti-poverty Committee said the planning day fitted within the organisation’s action plan for the area.

“We see access to healthy, good-quality food at a reasonable price is a basic right,” she said.

“The Australian Red Cross has done some preliminary research within our area. There do seem to be indicators there are a significant number of people in the community missing out on access to good quality food.

“Part of the project will be to support ongoing research for the Red Cross to continue their work and build a comprehensive picture for our area so we can look at ways to overcome any issues that arise.”

Australian Red Cross southern region manager Judy Harper said the study, known as the Food Mapping Project was first done in Kempsey.

“They looked at what percentage of income it would take to maintain a healthy diet based on Monash University standards,” she said.

“There it was found it would take 45 per cent of someone’s income and over an hour to access healthy food as opposed to eight fast food restaurants within an eight-minute radius of home.

“Food insecurity is a major issue in the Shoalhaven, but nothing specific has ever been measured with a lot of assumptions made, so over the past three years we have been collecting data.”

Ms Harper said the idea of the study was to make it public so council and other organisations could work collaboratively to address any issues.

“If we work together as a whole we will have a much bigger impact,” she said.

“It doesn’t always have to be about money either. We can do things without money; sometimes it’s just about raising awareness.”

Food Fairness Shoalhaven’s Planning Day is at the Nowra Showground Committee Room on Monday April 20 from 9am to 4pm.

The free community event includes a complimentary lunch.