Educate

Community connection through cooking and sharing a meal.

NEST continues to evolve and expand, touching the lives of diverse communities and increasing social connections.  With rising living costs, NEST has become an essential program to provide community support, nutrition education and life skills which can help improve food security. The team updated resources to ensure healthy eating habits can continue within tight budgets during these tough times.

A standout event of the year was welcoming ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith during a special NEST session with Woden Community Service to celebrate three years of partnership with ACT Health.

Responding to the increasing demand in Sydney, OzHarvest has scaled up to deliver 50 six-week programs this year, addressing the pressing need for nutritional education and support in the community.

In Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, the team forged connections with Community Hubs to reach a new demographic of new migrant parent groups. These groups have embraced NEST recipes while also sharing their rich cultural culinary traditions enhancing community connections.

An independent evaluation study determined that participation in NEST results in short and long-term improvements in food security levels and dietary behaviours.  With significant increases in fruit and vegetable intake, nutrition knowledge, cooking confidence and food preparation behaviours.

The program is set to expand in 2024, with the pilot program for Youth NEST successfully completed, the introduction of one-off community sessions and plans underway to trial a train-the-trainer model for regional delivery.