The City of Melbourne food policy – Food City – provides an overarching vision and framework for guiding coordinated action and decision-making to improve Melbourne’s food system. The policy aims to improve people's health and wellbeing by promoting a food system that is secure, healthy, sustainable, thriving, and socially inclusive. Endorsed by Council in June 2012, Food City was the first policy of its type developed by local government in Australia.

In March 2023, a draft of the refreshed food policy was shared with community to test the ideas captured in the proposed update. Learn more about what we heard in the first round of consultation. The draft was further refined based on community feedback and presented to the Future Melbourne Committee in December 2023. Councillors approved the draft for a second round of consultation in February and March 2024.

The aim of this consultation was to understand whether the draft refreshed food policy reflects the needs and views of the community.

We also asked the community if the content of the policy was easy to understand, what (if any) terms were unclear, and if there was anything missing.

We want our refreshed food policy, Food City 2024-2034, to provide good food for all now and into the future.

In March 2024, we shared a draft of the refreshed Food City Policy with the community and collected feedback via a survey on Participate Melbourne from 12 February to 15 March 2024.

The draft refreshed policy included 6 food priorities

1. Food justice
2. Healthy food environments
3. Celebrating diverse food cultures
4. A sustainable and resilient food system
5. A thriving local food economy
6. An edible city.

• Most responses received from 35-39-year-old age group (16 per cent), followed by those 30-34 years (12 per cent).
• Participants who identify as female made up 55 per cent of this engagement, with 36 per cent identifying as male 36 per cent.
• 32 per cent of participants were born overseas.
• 19 per cent of participants identified as LGBTIQA+.
• 9 per cent of participants selected that they lived with a disability, and 6 per cent identified as carers.
• A third of participants (33 per cent) indicated that they live in a private rental. 32 per cent of participants indicated that they were paying off a mortgage on their own home, and 20 per cent that they fully owned their home.

Which food priorities are most important to you?

Followed by:

• A thriving local food economy (93 per cent)
• Celebrating diverse food cultures (89 per cent)
• Food justice: Good food for all (86 per cent)
• Healthy food environments (85 per cent)
• An edible city (84 per cent)

Would you add anything to the draft policy?

• Most participants (61 per cent) did not want to add anything to the draft policy. 39 per cent selected that they would make additions.
• Most participants who would add to the draft policy suggested additions related to Priority 5: A thriving local food economy (33 comments). These participants discussed how the draft policy addresses food producers and vendors and enhanced support for food-businesses was a common request.
• Food literacy was also discussed (11 comments). For example, we heard that public food education programs and campaigns could be extended.
• Participants also discussed potential additions related to food waste (10 comments) and community gardens (10 comments). Many of these participants expressed that the draft policy could go further to enhance food waste management and recycling systems and consider more edible public green spaces.

What was hard to understand?

• The majority of participants (89 per cent) did not find anything hard to understand in the draft food policy, with a small minority (11%) identifying that they did.
• Key terms that participants felt needed clarifying in the draft policy included ‘food’, ‘healthy’, ‘health food’, ‘community’, ‘food bowl’ and ‘edible’.
• Feedback on the overall clarify of the draft policy (10 comments) included suggestions for clearer differentiation between priorities and articulation of how the policy could be measured.

• ‘Community gardens everywhere, grow local, eat fresh and organic, a healthier and more connected community. There are many wonderful parks in Melb, lets use them more.’
• ‘Public Education - information available in a variety of media, languages, platforms etc about food on different topics, such as seasonality, why big supermarkets cost so much, alternatives for shopping (local markets, co-ops) so to really broaden people's understanding of where one can access affordable fresh ethical foods.’
• ‘Food waste - packaging to be reduced from food businesses. All restaurants and cafes to separate [SIC] food waste. All high rise towers to also have food waste recycling - high rise dwellers and dwellers living in 6 stories or less should have equal opportunities to have access to food waste recycling disposal.’
• ‘There should be more support for communities and businesses to grow or source foods in the city of Melbourne. E.g. encouraging more businesses to embrace new technologies like vertical farming and rooftop gardens to save space, reduce emissions, and ensure food security.’
• ‘Under food justice I would add: - access that is dignified and equitable (let’s move away from food relief and towards food security).’
• ‘What types of foods count and doesn’t count as ‘health food’? Which ‘community’ is this survey referring to? The second part of the blurb for ‘A thriving local food economy’ is unclear. The term ‘food bowl’ might not be common knowledge.’
• ‘Outcomes look a very good start - could be more specific and hence measurable and then monitoring progress against them and overtime, continues to drive the wonderful policy and show case Melbourne's leadership in this space.’

Community feedback informed the final draft Food Policy: Food City 2024 – 2034.

Consultation feedback focused on support for the following areas. Council have since integrated or strengthened these areas of the policy:

• the need to support food producers
• the need to extend food education and literacy programs
• reducing or repurposing food waste
• increasing opportunities for community gardens.

The following specific items were introduced into the policy as the result of the feedback received:

• Acknowledging the diversity of nutritional needs throughout the human lifespan (including health conditions).
• Investigation of opportunities to reduce advertising of unhealthy food and drink options in our municipality.

Review of the draft policy and stakeholder feedback also identified some duplication and cross over between the draft priority areas. To address this, the below priorities were combined to result in the four priorities (instead of five):

• ‘Healthy food environments’ and ‘A sustainable and resilient food system’ combined under ‘Healthy food environments and a sustainable food system’.
• ‘Celebrating diverse food cultures’ and ‘A thriving local food economy’ combined under ‘Celebrating a thriving, local and diverse food economy’.

The final Food City 2024-2034 Policy was considered and endorsed by Future Melbourne Committee on the 4 June 2024.

This policy will guide how the City of Melbourne supports the growing food economy of Melbourne, together with those facing food insecurity over the next decade.