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First Nations people cooking Meals for the Mob

With the help of First Nations volunteers, meal relief charity FareShare is expanding its program of healthy cooked meals for remote communities.

Nutritious food is difficult to access in remote First Nations communities across Australia. “Something you can readily and affordably buy in a capital city is just so expensive – if it’s even there,” says FareShare Executive Director Marcus Godinho. 

Processed food that’s high in calories and salt is easier to get. Consequently, there’s a risk of poor diets contributing to serious health issues including type two diabetes, renal disease and hypertension. 

Where nutritious food is absent, poor physical and mental health often follow. It’s why Goodman Foundation is helping to secure the future of FareShare’s Brisbane-based program, Meals for the Mob.

FareShare’s two large-scale charity kitchens were already well-established. They welcome around 1,000 volunteers each week who help to prepare around 50,000 ready-to-eat meals for vulnerable people in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. 

Since 2016, some of that food has come from a garden at Moorabbin Airport in Melbourne’s southeast. It’s one of three kitchen gardens which together grow more than 100,000 kilos of vegetables a year to supplement rescued and donated food. The harvest ensures FareShare can cook nutritious, delicious and well-balanced meals such as salmon on a bed of Asian greens or beef and vegetable stir fry.  

In preparation for Meals for the Mob, FareShare consulted extensively with a pilot group of three First Nations communities. It asked each to list the meals that would work best. The University of Queensland consulted on cost-effective ways to make the preferred meals nutritionally rich and, as the pilot progressed. 

"It's pretty hard turning to a charity and asking for food but if it’s nicely packaged and looks like it’s been purchased, that helps. The dignity piece is really important."

Last year, Goodman Foundation committed to three years of support for FareShare’s kitchen garden program and to expand Meals for the Mob. “Philanthropy in Australia is often limited to one-year funding, but Goodman understood that we and the communities needed certainty,” says Godinho.

The funding also helped to hire a First Nations officer to liaise with communities. 

Godinho says that when Brisbane-based Indigenous groups heard about it, they said: “Sounds great what you're doing for our brothers and sisters on Country. Could we get involved in the cooking?” FareShare scheduled a monthly shift called Mob Cook-up Day where First Nations organisations help to make meals that both taste and look great. 

“It's pretty hard turning to a charity and asking for food but if it’s nicely packaged and looks like it’s been purchased, that helps. The dignity piece is really important,” says Godinho.