University course taking a bite out of food insecurity

Alana Mann is on a complex mission: to make Sydney a better place to live and eat. As co-leader of the University of Sydney's FoodLab program, she's seeking to create a more vibrant and diverse local food economy where everyone has access to healthy and affordable food.

As wages stagnate, the cost of living rises and people struggle to afford housing, food insecurity becomes a critical issue.

The City of Sydney's 2019 Wellbeing Indicators show 8 per cent of residents, or some 17,000 people, are food insecure and had run out of food at least once in the past year and could not afford to buy more. That rate has remained stubbornly unchanged since 2011.

The FoodLab program seeks to train people to be better equipped for a career in food and to stimulate new businesses throughout Sydney. No previous food experience is required.

Graduates will come away with a Certificate II in Kitchen Operations through TAFE NSW and 10 weeks of business and entrepreneurship training.

Dr Mann hopes they leave inspired to take their skills back to their communities and amplify the impact.

"We're part of this slightly underground group of organisations that's trying to give people an alternate pathway into employment and hopefully they will get to employ people too," she says.

Last week, Mona Mahamed was one of eight bright-eyed participants who began the course.

Ms Mahamed was a teacher before starting a charity to help support her local community in Bankstown.

She runs a food pantry five days a week where people can get quality produce and bread through Foodbank and SecondBite, which prevent surplus food from supermarkets and bakeries from going to landfill.

"We're like a one-stop shop for people to come in have a cuppa and make connections with others who are in a similar situation and hopefully be less isolated."

But Ms Mahamed would like to expand her impact and soon hopes to start a food truck based on the skills she learns from FoodLab.

Passionate about reducing wastage, her goal is to be able to create and sell nutritious food "out of something that would have gone to landfill".

Jackie Lau is an account manager with a health background who graduated from last year's program and says it was "super valuable".

"There's a lot of romance in food but they made you aware of the business realities and the financial pressures," Ms Lau says.

She says FoodLab gave her "the confidence to make the leap" to start her own small business selling fermented rice congee at markets later this year.

The City of Sydney has provided $120,000 over three years for FoodLab, which councillor Jess Miller aligns with the city's goal of improving food security by helping "create diversity in the food system".

"When you're not as reliant on the major supermarkets and big agricultural systems, it means when those systems break down due to floods, drought and fire you've got options," Cr Miller says.