Enabling resilient food systems toolbox.
In this toolbox, you will find links, processes, gadgets and examples of how local government might enable resilient food systems. They have been collated as part of the Local Government Association Research and Development Scheme grant project Local government: Enabling resilient food systems in South Australia.
It has been assembled as a place to find tools to help you make diverse applications across different contexts. You can dip in as you need, you might mix and match, or even use a tool that was designed for one purpose and use it in a new way. Feel free to work with your inner McGyver! A hairpin can crack open a treasure trove just as easily as keeping a fringe in place.
Scroll straight down to the Toolbox. or read more details of the project before you jump in.
Be creative. Be innovative.
The project team would appreciate hearing how you use the tools, what you make and any updates that would be make the toolbox better.
Who is this for?
This toolbox is for any local government manager and their team who has responsibility for:
food security
climate change / adaptation / mitigation
environment or biodiversity
waste management
circular economy
communications
financial management
community gardens
water management
Where do I start?
There is a saying in systems change making that says, it doesn’t matter where you start, just start.
The approach taken in this project has been to start from where you are, with what you have. It may be that you don’t have everyone on board, don’t have significant buy-in from leadership, not enough financial resources to get all the results you are looking for, a disengaged section of the community, limited number of champions amongst elected members, not enough time with competing priorities. These constraints are real.
This toolbox encourages you to treat these as beautiful constraints.
A great book to help with this mindset is A Beautiful Constraint.
Why we started.
Since 2016, various Adelaide governments, organisations and communities have begun working together. This work has been guided by a diversity of interstate and local drivers, including the community vision collated in the Edible Adelaide report. In 2019, a range of needs were identified at the event: Urban food systems and the role of government. This event highlighted the need for:
+ Local, state and federal governments to prioritise food systems and develop guidelines, toolkits, budget allocation and staffing.
+ Research, to build local case studies, mapping of local food systems and food security data.
+ Prioritising collaboration and communication across governments and other sectors.
The network initially met as a working group to develop a Local Government Association Research and Development Grant, which was successful in October 2020. Four local governments nominated to map their local food systems, see some excerpts from their nominations below:
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City of Onkaparinga
This project had strong strategic alignment to our Community Capacity Strategic Plan and Community Plan. We also saw links into our future Climate Change Response and Economic Growth and Investment Strategic plans.
We have strong community momentum and current initiatives but would value the clear direction and recommendations sought through this project. We look forward to utilising the tools and templates and building a strong evidence base to advocate for further investment in food systems.
Compiled by Linda Enright, Healthy Lifestyles Officer.
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Alexandrina Council
Our readiness to participant in this project was highlighted through consultation with our community to design Alexandrina Council’s Community Strategic Plan 2020-2024. Local residents indicated that “local food”, “sustainable agriculture” and “environmental stewardship” were important to them when thinking about their ideal Alexandrina into the future.
Council already supports a range of food initiatives that see departments from across the organisation working together. These include business development, planning and development, environmental strategy, libraries, wellbeing and parks and gardens. We look forward to Council’s future role.
Compiled by Kylie Markow, Community Health & Wellbeing Officer.
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City of Marion
Marion was ready to explore our role in building the resilience of our local food system. As a metropolitan council we wanted to see how our role in food systems could help achieve our Community Vision and Strategic Plan focus on valuing nature, with the key outcomes of:
a healthy and climate resilient urban environment and community
a city that reflects a deep value of the nature world and
improved condition, diversity and connectivity of ecosystems.
Like many other councils we already support some food initiatives but wanted guidance to prioritise a systems focus and future support where possible.
Compiled by Danielle Clark, Community Development Officer.
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Mount Barker District Council
Council currently supports farmers markets, community gardens and community centres that all play an important in the food ‘ecosystem’. Council also supplies treated wastewater to the horticultural industry and is looking for opportunities to expand this function as population grows.
The Community Plan 2020-2035, adopts the ‘Doughnut Economics’ model and identifies 6 high priorities which were developed through focused consultation with community leaders, including those in the business and community sectors. Three of these priority areas are especially relevant to this project, namely Circular Economies, Climate Innovation and Healthy Community. Activating Tourism and Nature Connection are also relevant. We look forward to the integrations.
Compiled by Greg Sarre, Manager Sustainability & Corporate Planning.
Why local governments?
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Local governments are at the frontier of food systems. They have leadership, compliance and development responsibilities. They hold the levers to support job creation, mitigate impact of climate change and pathways to community resilience.
Local government’s role in creating the conditions to support the sustainability of food systems from transport routes to ensure food supply in times of crisis through to offering space and opportunities for community gardens and everything in between like planning, water and waste management, retail and wholesale centres, and regulations around health and safety.
There really isn’t much in a food system that a local government does not link with in some way, therefore giving it a unique place in enabling and fostering processes, people and places to deliver the best outcomes through recreation and planning, transport, sustainability and biodiversity, community services, safety and wellbeing.
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Take a salad in your lunch box, as your guide to understanding what a food system is. Have a think about what you might find in your lunch box, where the various parts of the salad came from, maybe you grew the cherry tomatoes in your apartment, the cucumber and lettuce came from a farmer’s market, the chives and parsley from a neighbours garden, the eggs bought from a supermarket - you instantly can see the range of ways in which food comes to you and the connections between the salad you are about to eat and how the relationships that have enabled the salad to be put together.
This project has provided an opportunity for four councils to take a closer look at their food system, by bringing together people with different roles and responsibilities to dream a vision for the future of their system, examine some ideas they would like to take forward and consider their own next steps.
Having one idea to fix one problem will not be effective, it is the intersections and connections that makes a system. Food systems are dynamic and complex.
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Through workshops and conversations local government officers and community members sought to understand how their food system was influenced by all the variables they could think of. They then looked ahead to what kind of future food systems they could see for themselves.
The process then facilitated an understanding of these relationships and the steps needed to be taken to create that future. It did not seek to detail these in any way, but rather equip participants and officers to apply these processes in their on going planning, decision making and implementation.
This toolbox provides a set of tools generated by participants and the project team. They are raw, unprocessed, like the salad, ready for you to pick over, work out which bits will work best for your circumstances and to encourage you to learn from one another.
A vital part of this project is to keep on learning and sharing. This project brought together local governments and their communities via the evolving Food Systems Network, hosted by Green Adelaide. This group looks forward to supporting one another as a community of practice and finding more ways for coordinated and equitable approaches to maximising working together for food resilience.
Project themes uncovered.
Climate justice for food distribution and production.
Literacy about the relationships required for a resilient food system.
Ways that communities might lead future action.
Toolbox.
Why food systems?
Explore why food systems work is important for our collective futures through some key resources, images and vision illustrations. You’ll start seeing connections everywhere!
Overview of food systems challenges - Food Climate Research Network
Explore the connections between food systems and climate change risks
Why are the environment impacts of the food system a concern?
What are the connections between food systems and public health and wellbeing?
Creating Healthier Local Food Environments - a guide for local government developed by SA Health
Australian Food Systems Resources List – a living document of resources compiled by the Food Systems Network to support governments in their role(s) as enablers
What is a food system?
A local food system is a collaborative network that integrates sustainable food production, processing, distribution, consumption and waste management in order to enhance the environmental, economic and social health of an area.
Visualising food systems.
Circular Food System Diagram - Credit: City of Greater Bendigo | Nourish Food System Map - Credit: www.nourishlife.org
Numerous useful images and ways to look at the food system are part of the Food Climate Research Network’s report - download
Community food vision illustrations from this project - City of Alexandrina | Mount Barker Council (Artist: Deb Twinning) | City of Onkaparinga
Sustain: The Australian Food Network’s promotional video is an excellent visual overview at just 2 minutes
Who needs to be part of the process?
Food system actors
Food system activities are carried out by food system actors. Which types of food system actors can you include?
This project used the domains of food system actors outlined by the SA Urban Food Network to coordinate targeted invites. Explore them here
Start with your First Nation leaders.
Who are your local First Nation leaders?
What foundational work needs to be done to understand and advocate for their leadership in food systems change?
Dig deeper into what food sovereignty means and the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance’s First Peoples First Strategy.
Project gaps in engaging food system actors.
First Nation leaders (Kaurna, Permangk and Ngarrindjeri) were invited for welcomes and participation in workshops. This leadership did not extend to representation on the project team. Relationship building between project team members and First Nations groups is developing through local government and state government steering groups like Green Adelaide’s Warpulai Kumangka. There is more work ahead of us.
Food producers and farmers numbers were also limited in this process (due to the timing and nature of the workshops) but the team are looking at follow up interviews and focus groups to complement.
System readiness.
Is your local government ready to work on enabling food systems?
Take a Food System Questionnaire
Example questionnaire responses from the project team
Building staff capacity
Do your staff need some further support before working on food systems?
We recommend contacting The Food Embassy for their in-house training options.
"The Food Embassy training has been instrumental for our council in considering how food systems can influence economic, health, social and environmental outcomes for our community." Linda Enright, Healthy Lifestyles Officer, City of Onkaparinga
Map your current food systems work
Map your local government strategic plans and current food system links and opportunities.
Here are the participating local government nomination emails outlining their strategic links and current initiatives.
Look interstate
This toolbox builds on and is supported by the work of Sustain: The Australian Food Network.
Research they have worked on that is relevant to growing system readiness includes:
Foods Systems and the role of government, undertaken with the Victorian Local Government Association in 2017. Download the paper.
This paper supports local government staff and elected officials in the revision, drafting and finalisation of Council plans and key strategic documents, in particular the Health and Wellbeing Plans, Economic Development Plans and (where applicable) Green Wedge Management Plans. It is also intended to have a broader audience amongst community organisations, producers and businesses that engage with local government on a range of food system issues, as well as researchers, teachers, students and members of the general public concerned about the food system.
Policy links found across local governments in Victoria/NSW - a summary of 2000 policies/strategies that reference food policy and where they fit in council planning.
Strengthening local food systems governance, an ARC Discovery project that began in 2019. Explore key findings here.
This project investigates the role of law, policy, and regulation in enabling local governments and communities to contribute to healthy, sustainable, and equitable food systems. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, it analyses policies and initiatives developed by local governments and communities in New South Wales and Victoria that aim to contribute to a healthy, sustainable and equitable food system. The knowledge created by this project will inform recommendations for policy and legislative reforms that will empower local governments and communities to respond to food system challenges at the local level.
Look overseas
Rethinking Food governance in England - Mechanisms for connecting food policy
Tabledebates - University of Oxford, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Wageningen University and Research
Communications.
The project team designed a range of communication assets adapted for each context. We also sourced useful graphics and images from other local governments and organisations. Please use as templates for your own adaptations and acknowledge sources as you develop.
Our Local Food System Video v.1 & v.2
We put together a two minute video to tell the story of our local food system, what this means for everyone and how people could participate.
We adapted it at the end of the project (v.2) as an ongoing resource to promote food systems action.
Initial working plan: communications messaging
Workshop flier examples: Alexandrina | Onkaparinga
Stronger local food system graphic - shows links to Sustainable Development Goals
City of Greater Bendigo Food Systems graphic
Photos: Alexandrina workshop | Alexandrina workshop 2 | Mount Barker workshop | Onkaparinga workshop - more coming
Workshop theme Illustrations
Food isn’t meant to be waste | Valuing local food, Artist: Laura Wills
Community vision illustrations
Alexandrina | Mount Barker (Artist: Deb Twinning) | Onkaparinga
With Marion we worked with videography Rob Denton to share the project through video - more participant vox pops coming soon
Enabling Resilient Food Systems: Local Government Project
Workshop methodology.
Choose locally appropriate ways and means of engaging with key food system actors across your communities. There are a multitude of ways but defining your purpose and methodology helps with your decision making.
Explore this training manual to understand the methods and tools used with Ethical Fields and Collaborative Futures - download here
The project’s workshops framing, key messages and running sheets are provided below:
Workshop invitation - email template
Workshop agenda example: Marion
Running sheets: Blank template | Alexandrina | Marion | Mount Barker
Workshop tools.
Visioning
Visioning activity templates and outcomes. The visioning activities chosen simultaneously build complex systems literacy. Key themes were collated and photos taken to capture the activities in motion.
Marion | Photo Marion Vision | Photo Marion Vision
Alexandrina | Photo Vision Alexandrina | Photo Alexandrina Vision
Onkaparinga - more photos coming
Mount Barker - more photos coming
Casual mapping
Causal mapping is a way of looking deeply at a particular issue in our food system (e.g. food waste) and considering all the different factors that influence that issue and how they interact with each other. Causal maps can help us identify which factors we can modify or act upon to get a desired outcome.
Alexandrina | Marion | Onkaparinga
Back-casting
Back-casting is a process for working backwards from a desirable future to identify the steps required that connect the future to the present. Back-casting helps us to maintain a focus on the desired end goal, and identify steps required to overcome barriers or hurdles to achieving the desired future, rather than taking steps that are merely a continuation of the current condition as in the case of forecasted planning.
Alexandrina | Marion | Marion | Mt. Barker 1 | Mt. Barker 2
Rich Picture Drawing
Rich picture activity templates and examples.
Marion | Mt. Barker 1 | Mt. Barker 2
Horizon Scanning
Horizon scanning activity templates and examples.
Horizon scan Marion
Future Scenarios
Coming soon
Workshop summaries.
Workshop summaries were collated and provided to participants and local government leadership.
Alexandrina | Alexandrina Infographic | Marion | Mount Barker | Onkaparinga
Evaluation.
Report and recommendations
Please download the project’s
FULL Evaluation Report
Evaluation Report without appendices
Recommendations
Find our project evaluation framework and End of workshop survey to use as templates.
The workshops were well attended by 140 participants representing a diverse cross-section of the food system. Each workshop co-created a local food vision, a set of supporting actions for priority areas, and mapped current and/or future considerations. The level of engagement and participation was very high and the feedback received was extremely positive. Participants valued being asked to provide input into the process but also to learn and collaborate with others working or interested in food systems.
74% of participants reported experiencing a moderate or substantial improvement in their understanding of their local food system as a result. This was due to the time given to engage with the issue, hearing from a diverse group of people, sharing stories and building awareness of the different parts and actors of the system and how they are interconnected.
Challenges
One key challenge we grappled with was how to capture who was not in the room?
We recommend targeted interviews or focus groups to ensure all food system actors are represented and included in your community vision.
A number of the participating local governments initiated this beyond the scope of this project.
Project team.
We learnt by doing and reflecting
We are compiling our reflections for you in the form of short videos - coming soon
In 2022, the team applied for a Local Government Professionals Australia, SA, Excellence in Cross Council Collaboration Award.
The application includes a succinct elevator pitch and outcomes of the project so far: Application
Enabling food systems presentation
Book us to come and share the findings with your local government team or leadership.
We can adapt this presentation for your needs.
The project team would appreciate hearing how you use the tools, what you design and any updates that would improve the toolbox.
What next?
Project team and contractors at the last public workshop in City of Marion.
Share the story
The project team have a presentation of this project to share across South Australian local governments. They would be happy to present to your local government leadership and/or operations teams.
Evaluate
This project doesn’t stop here, we look forward to tracking the use of this toolbox and how it helps you start and sustain conversations, working groups, policies, and other initiatives.
Join the Food Systems Network to scope and invest in:
- an independent Food Policy Council/Alliance and appropriate staffing to continue to build the priority of this work across South Australia
- cost/benefit analysis of local food
- ways to tell more local food system stories through the media and case studies.
Project acknowledgements.
This toolbox was developed through a Local Government Association Research and Development Grant project Local government: Enabling resilient food systems in South Australia.
Project coordination and funding contributions were provided by the project team from the Cities of Holdfast Bay, Marion, Onkaparinga, Salisbury, Mount Barker District Council, Alexandrina Council, Heart Foundation and Green Adelaide. Key staff leaders were Linda Enright, Sue Dugan, Danielle Clark, Bruce Nauman, Greg Sarre, Kylie Markow, Frances Turland and Christy Spier.
The contract team leadership were Moira Were AM, Ethical Fields, Dr. Ariella Helfgott, Collaborative Futures and Dr. Nick Rose, Sustain: The Australian Food Network.
We recognise all the diverse staff, community members, businesses and organisations who contributed to this project and are everyday, in everyway growing a local, resilient food system.
Help us uncover those working towards a regenerative local food system. Do you know of something we should add here?
Email hello@saurbanfood.org
