Local Food Launchpad 2016: Projects
Society’s biggest challenges won’t be solved by government, not-for-profits or communities alone. Successfully addressing these complex social, environmental and economic challenges requires an ecosystem approach that enables key stakeholders, engaged community members, academics, entrepreneurs and innovators to come together and cocreate replicable and scalable solutions.
In 2016, Doing Something Good ran a 10 week accelerator program for ventures and community projects aimed at improving our local food system and growing our local food economy. Offered in partnership with City of Melbourne and Open Food Network, Local Food Launchpad was developed as part of a program of community events and workshops that started with the EcoCity Food Forum in 2013 — designed to generate socially innovative initiatives that hold the potential to make our food system healthier, sustainable, secure, resilient and socially inclusive.
The second annual Local Food Launchpad took 15 participants through an innovative design-led program to develop and test 11 concepts for local food ventures and community projects. A diverse range of initiatives, they include social enterprises that serve Melbourne’s long term unemployed and poor, a unique mode for sustainable food production, technologies that help consumers access and purchase from growers, and community education programs.
Below you’ll find a summary and link to a project page for each of their big ideas. Click on the image or heading and you’ll be taken to the project page to learn more about each project, and details on what’s next and how you can get involved and help make them happen.
You can also learn more about the 2016 Local Food Launchpad here.
If you’re interested in partnering with us on the Melbourne Local Food Launchpad 2017 accelerator program, or Launchpad programs we’re developing with councils and communities in peri-urban or regional Victoria, please get in touch with David Hood via email at david@doingsomethinggood.com.au
Local Food Launchpad 2016 Projects: Local Food Loop
A campaign featuring Melbourne's top
chefs, farmers and local food
advocates championing local produce:
growing Melbourne's local food scene
and our reputation as the food city.
Local Food Launchpad 2016 Projects: Return to Earth
A service to collect food waste from
Melbourne restaurants and cafés, and
provide it to local growers and farmers
to compost on farm, and turn our food
waste into a valuable resource.
Local Food Launchpad 2016 Projects: Fish Farmers
A sustainable and scalable farming
system that reduces environmental
impact and financial cost through
integrating fish farming and
hydroponics: aquaponics.
Local Food Launchpad 2016 Projects:
Farmers’ Feed Festival
Showcasing Melbourne Farmers'
Markets, and prototyping ways to make
buying from local growers easy,
more enjoyable and more rewarding
than the supermarket.
Local Food Launchpad 2016 Projects: Melbourne Sprout Company
A replicable and scalable model for
growing micro-herbs and sprouts
that provides job opportunities
for long term unemployed, refugees
and people with special needs.
Local Food Launchpad 2016 Projects:
Food Security Design Jam
Codesigning programs with food
relief providers, service designers
and social innovators to improve
access to fresh, healthy food for
Melbourne's most vulnerable.
Local Food Launchpad 2016 Projects: Rolling Oasis Grocers
A fresh produce delivery service that
means no more trips to the supermarket
for your fruit and veg, and employment
opportunities for asylum seekers and
refugees.
Local Food Launchpad 2016 Projects: Fair Food UniCycle
A hireable cargo bike and fair food
system that takes all the stress out of
catering an event for clubs, societies,
staff and student groups at
universities.
Local Food Launchpad 2016 Projects: Farmer to Table
to prepare and enjoy a tasty meal,
and share and capture stories of
where our food comes from and
about the people that grow it for us.
Local Food Launchpad 2016 Projects:
Tiny Trowel Crowd Harvest
Collaborating with organizations
that supply to the food insecure
to develop sustainable approaches
using permaculture principles.
Local Food Launchpad 2016 Projects:
Urban Forage and Feast
A special event to bring together young
people in Melbourne passionate about
fair and sustainable food, to establish
Youth Food Movement in Melbourne
and improve our food system together.