Healthy Families South Auckland and Health Coalition Aotearoa have released two new reports highlighting key policy actions needed to improve access to affordable, nutritious food for communities across South Auckland.
Titled “He kai kei aku ringa – There is food in my hands”, the foundation and community reports respond to rising levels of food poverty in the region and showcase innovative community-led initiatives that are improving access to healthy food.
Following a year-long research process and working with the Māngere community, the solutions needed to improve South Auckland’s food system have been identified in areas of planning and zoning reform, school and food protections, fiscal and regulatory levers, and economic system shift.
The solutions in the reports include granting legislative tools to allow Auckland Council to unlock unused or underused public land for community kai initiatives, permanently funding and expanding Ka Ora Ka Ako – Healthy School Lunches Programme possibly through a sugary drinks tax, and giving communities a say in where and how many junk food outlets they want in their neighbourhoods.
In listening to the Māngere community, researchers identified many existing solutions in the South Auckland food system. The challenge is to ensure community-led solutions are inter-connected across sectors as these solutions can be platforms for wider change.
“The system analysis in these reports reveals where we collectively need to strengthen the local food system to make the most impact for communities,” says Healthy Families South Auckland Manager Matt Appleyard.
“Our conclusion is that a coordinated and systems-oriented approach, in combination with targeted national-level and regional-level regulation and policy changes, will rebalance the food system, so everyone thrives. It’s time we stopped looking past food choices as individuals, and instead see they are part of an economic system with shared responsibility.”
Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chair Professor Boyd Swinburn says New Zealand needs to recognise food insecurity is a major driver in our nation’s problems.
“Aotearoa is an export nation excellent at growing our own kai – enough to feed 40 million people, in fact. And yet we have 42% of children in South Auckland regularly going hungry, which clearly isn’t solely caused by the 5% of people who are unemployed. We must debunk the narrative that our nation’s food issues are about parents not working hard enough.”
Swinburn calls for collaborative action across local and central government to allow communities’ energy and innovation for local food systems to thrive, while also limiting the dominance of the industrial food system and its promotion of unhealthy food.
“Many of the solutions are simple – like more community gardens on unused public land and removing junk food advertising from Auckland Council and Auckland Transport contracts, and within 500 metres of schools.”
The reports were commissioned by Health Coalition Aotearoa and Healthy Families South Auckland, and developed by Moana Connect, with support from Toi Tangata, Clare Foundation, the University of Auckland, JR McKenzie Trust, and MAS Foundation.
Read the foundation report at www.healthcoalition.org.nz/resources