COMMUNITY FOODIE PROGRAM

Ms THOMPSON (Reynell) (15:21): Today we have heard quite a bit about how difficult government is. The Minister for Health has recently been faced with some difficult decisions as well. I think we all know that balancing the health budget is going to be a challenge for many years to come and has been for some time. The ministers have generally tried to take expert advice on how to better deliver health services. Just before he retired the previous minister for health sought advice on some of the ancillary services that health provides.

One of those was Community Foodies. This was one of the matters considered by the McCann review, which found that he was not able to find specific evidence to demonstrate that programs such as Community Foodies are having a positive impact. The response to that was widespread. Community Foodies stood up for themselves and demonstrated how they provide value to the South Australian community.

I was quite surprised last week when I was visiting the Nepabunna Aboriginal community (or the Nipapanha, as they prefer to be called) to speak to the chair of the community council, Ms Judy Johnson. I asked her about services that were working and services that were not working. The first thing she said is that Community Foodies has been fabulous, but we are losing it. So I was very pleased to be able to tell her that in fact she will not be losing Community Foodies, as indeed my community will not be losing their services, and no communities, we hope, will be losing their services, because the Minister for Health, the Hon. Jack Snelling, has found a way of preserving this valuable service.

It was very heartening to see the way Community Foodies stood up and spoke out for the value of the services that they provide. In this regard, I wish to particularly commend Ms Ronwyn McNicoll, who really was the face of the Save the Foodies campaign. It seemed to me she was very often and ably supported by Ms Sonya Kling, one of my valuable constituents. I, like many MPs, received many letters from people involved with Community Foodies, but one that particularly struck me came from Jonathan de Sadeleer of Morphett Vale. He says that he was a client of a youth service in the south and was referred to the Community Foodies program. They told him how it was about healthy and affordable food for people on a budget. It also gave information about food storage and hygiene in the kitchen, which was really helpful. He said that the funding enabled the program to provide them with a basic cooking utensil each week, such as a spatula, a wooden spoon, or a grater. He says he had nothing of this kind, so that was really useful. It was also good to meet other people and do some socialising.

Jonathan was so impressed by the work of Foodies that he became a Foodie and has now helped out with budget cooking programs with Anglicare, particularly for their clients receiving emergency food parcels. They did cooking sessions using some of the food that clients received as emergency food to make it more likely that clients would be able to make good use of the food. He participated in programs for older people which were fantastic, programs run from the local community centre, and in community events for the whole population.

He said it has been really positive and rewarding to be part of the program. His confidence has grown and he now knows some really great people. He also mentioned that when he was 18 he used to drink a lot of soft drink and eat unhealthy food and was told that his blood sugar was getting too high. Since then he has reduced the amount of junk food that he eats and has learnt how to prepare and enjoy healthy food. His health has really improved. He also notes that there is a belief that young males are not always particularly hygienic in the kitchen and are subject to food poisoning as a result, but he has not been. I commend all the Foodies for their campaign.