Oxfam’s new food justice campaign was launched at the Wheeler Centre, Melbourne at 11am on 1 June, 2011.
The world produces enough food to feed everyone, yet one in seven people go hungry. This is one of numerous factors demonstrating that our global food system is broken. But how to fix it?
This event is now over, but we’ll be putting the video up as soon as we can! Stay tuned!
Who was there?
Andrew Hewett
Andrew joined Oxfam Australia in 1991, establishing the organisation’s advocacy and campaigning program and later managing our domestic program and coordinating Oxfam International’s response to the Timor-Leste crisis from 1999 to 2001. He has been Executive Director since October 2001. Andrew is Vice President of ACFID, the peak council of non-government overseas development agencies, Co-Chair of the Make Poverty History coalition and a member of the Oxfam International Board.
Ego Lemos – Community Leader & Musician
For over ten years, musician, songwriter, permaculturalist, and community development worker, Ego Lemos has been charming audiences around the world with his inspiring enthusiasm for environmental and social revitalisation in his home country, East Timor, and across the Globe. In that time he had founded and coordinated the country’s first Permaculture centre, Permatil, and also help start a highly successful sustainable agriculture network, HASATIL.
In 2005 he address the UK parliament and in 2006 performed at Australia’s national Indigenous Festival – the Dreaming Festival, in Queensland. He has also spoken at the One Just World Forum in 2009 and in the same year, won the APRA Screen Music Award winner for “Best Original Song Composed for the Screen” in the film Balibo.
He has recently completed his Masters in Community Development at Victoria University including a thesis on Food Sovereignty and Food Security in Timor-Leste.
Russell Shields – Food Program Development Manager, SecondBite
Russell has been with SecondBite since February 2007 and has overseen the rapid expansion of the organisation from its time as a borrowed laptop and a simple idea, to a dedicated team of fourteen full time staff and 448 volunteers across Victoria and Tasmania. In 2010 SecondBite collected 880 tonnes of surplus fresh food – an increase of 25% from 2009, enough food to provide 1.7 million hearty meals to 212 community food programs.
Throughout this growth, SecondBite has retained its focus on the needs of the community organisations and food relief agencies it exists to serve. With a focus on research and by working with business and community organisations on better ways of providing food to people in need, it sees the bigger picture around food insecurity and is constantly striving for an equitable food system and dev+eloping ways in which the food redistributed can be more than just a meal to the people who receive it.
Russell is a member of the Council to Homeless Persons Policy Advisory Group and the StreetSmart Grants Committee.
Jennifer Alden – CEO, Cultivating Community
With three decades experience in working to improve the health and wellbeing of the community, Jennifer sees the solutions to climate change adaptation possible when food systems are better realigned with public health and environmental sustainability, acting as an enabler for the transformation to a healthier and more equal society.
Julie Goodwin
Since becoming Australia’s first MasterChef winner, Central Coast mum-of-three Julie Goodwin has become a household name. She is passionate about food and now writes a monthly column for the Australian Woman’s Weekly andappears in a weekly cooking segment on the Today Program.
Julie is a proud supporter of Oxfam Australia and is one GROW’s celebrity ambassadors.
