In 2012, the City of Melbourne became the first local government in Australia to develop and adopt a Food Policy: Food City.

City of Melbourne is committed to supporting and promoting a food system that is secure, healthy, fair, sustainable, thriving and socially inclusive. The impacts of COVID-19, extreme weather, global events and the rising cost of living have demonstrated the fragility of our food system and the need for a more coordinated and localised approach to food in our city.

In recognition of these challenges City of Melbourne included a refresh of our Food Policy.

We have updated the policy with the support of two consultants, Sustain: The Australian Food Network and KANTAR Public.

We want Food City 2024-2034 to reflect the needs and aspirations of our diverse community in providing good food for all now and into the future.

In March 2023, we shared a draft Food City Policy summary with the community as part of phase one of this project and asked for feedback on the themes in the summary.

We also invited community members to share ideas for how City of Melbourne could become the greatest ‘food city’ in the world. These ideas are important to better develop a vision for our food policy.

We engaged consultants KANTAR Public to facilitate an online forum with community members, and in-depth interviews with community members who bring lived experience with food insecurity.

Council also engaged the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation and the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation on the development of the Food Policy 2024-2034.

The themes that emerged in the feedback were:

• Further emphasis needed to be given in the policy to supporting locally grown food in the municipality.
• Reducing food waste and developing a circular economy is important in our community.
• Greater emphasis is needed on building partnerships with other local councils and external agencies to support and advocate for the farmland surrounding Melbourne that feeds the city. The community values diverse and multicultural food being available and that having a wide range of interesting and diverse food defines Melbourne and is a key point of eating out in Melbourne.
• It is becoming more difficult for all community members to access and afford nutritious food that meets their needs.
• Many community members wanted convenient access to local food producers and farmers to directly support local businesses and regional economies.

Feedback received has been incorporated into the draft Food City 2024-34 Policy and was shared with Councillors in November 2023.

We have incorporated community feedback into the policy vision, condensed the number of original themes, which are now priorities; and included community quotes across the policy.

Six priorities have been identified and articulated within the policy.

Phase two of the Draft Food Policy 2024-2034 consultation will open in February 2024. Follow this page for updates.