The NEPHN – Population Health meeting held in June 2026 had a focus on improving the food system in north east Melbourne.
The meeting included a range of key presentations and time for questions and discussion.
The session commenced with an overview of the Increasing healthy eating portfolio from Laura Collins, Health Promotion and Prevention Officer at NEPHU, highlighting some of the key work NEPHU have undertaken in this space in the last couple of years. Increasing healthy eating has been a focus area for NEPHU for three years and is continuing to support and address wider food system challenges, including food insecurity and chronic disease related to unhealthy eating.
The next presentation came from Dheepa Jeyapalan, Partnerships Lead at Good Food Purchasing Australia, and Dheepa spoke about food system transformation and exploring food purchasing by governments. Dheepa discussed the need for better transparency, standards and accountability given the significant amounts of money being spent on food procurement in institutions, such as hospitals, schools and prisons.
We next heard from Emily Sykes, Coordinator Social Policy and Wellbeing at Knox City Council and Marilyn Lambert, Secretary of Outer East Foodshare Inc and Coordinator on the Foodshare Hub, and they presented on the Foodshare Hub in Knox. The presenters shared with the audience the establishment journey of the Hub and some of the key achievements and learnings since the Hub has been operating, where they are at now, and key takeaways.
The next presentation was from Justine Coates Managing Director, Plus One Serve – AUSVEG who spoke to the audience about challenges around dietary intake of vegetables and the impact cost of living and other global challenges are having on vegetable consumption. Justine described the coordinated and evidenced-based approaches Plus One Serve take to increase vegetable intake, support public health outcomes, support the vegetable industry, and support food insecurity.
The final presentatioN was from Jayne Travers-Drapes, Co-founder at Box Divvy who showcased to the audience the successful and innovative local food hub model supporting food system access and affordability. Jayne described the current pressures affecting food security and the impact that is having on diets and chronic disease. Jayne demonstrated how Box Divvy can be a viable solution to both the growers and consumers in a local and sustainable way.
Health Translations Resources
Health Translations is a free, Victorian Department of Health–funded library of multilingual health and wellbeing information. It supports multicultural communities and the health professionals who work with them by providing access to reliable translated resources from trusted Australian peak health bodies and organisations across a wide range of health topics.
To support this NEPHN Population Health session on healthy eating, Health Translations has curated a collection of multilingual resources on nutrition, healthy eating, food choices, diabetes prevention and overall wellbeing. These resources can be shared with patients, clients and communities to support culturally appropriate health communication and education.
Click on each resource page to access the English version, view available languages, and download or share translated materials
