Missed opportunity in charitable food sector!

Background/Aims: Nutrition education and improving food literacy skills has been identified as a sustainable strategy for improving individual food security. This study identifies the nutrition education needs of organisations, staff, volunteers and consumers in the charitable organisations in metropolitan Perth.
Methods: A cross-sectional study design, used an online questionnaire to survey 179 charitable organisations of whom 18% (n = 32) responded.
Results: 'Welfare/homeless services' (n = 13, 41%) were the primary service provider of food relief; emergency food parcels were the most common food service offered (n = 13, 41%) followed by cooking classes 31% (n = 10). The main recipients of food relief were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People (n = 25, 78%); low income adults (n = 25, 78%); homeless adults (n = 21, 66%); asylum seekers, migrants or refugees (n = 20, 63%). Over 46% (n = 11-13) of paid staff and 67% (n = 14-18) of volunteers had not received training in food safety and handling, cooking, nutrition and food budgeting. Challenges to implementation of food literacy programs included limited cooking skills (n = 9, 28%) and poor nutrition knowledge (n = 15, 47%) of clients, insufficient funds to buy food (n = 9, 28%) and the lack of functional kitchen and resources available within the organisation (n = 7, 22%).
Conclusions: Improved food literacy of staff and volunteers is needed if charitable organisations are to effectively provide basic nutrition, budgeting and cooking skills to clients and address food security levels.