15 minute cornucopias
What if there was fresh, local food at the heart of every neighbourhood?
Imagine walking down your street – past community gardens, food hubs and your local urban farm – to the neighborhood cafe. You order breakfast from a menu where over half the food has been sourced from producers in Melbourne. All of it is sustainably grown, harvested and transported. Imagine doing your weekly grocery shop at local businesses and fresh food markets within 15 minutes of your home; shelves stocked with diverse, seasonal and affordable produce.
Imagine a food system untethered from the corporate interests of a supermarket duopoly, where every single Melburnian can afford to eat and food banks are redundant. Where people are connected to what they eat and how it affects their local environment.
Imagine if food was no longer a commodity, but the glue that connects our communities – sustaining the environment and promoting a healthy, thriving Melbourne.
We’ve got a long way to go to make this a reality, but Melbourne is hungry for it. Let’s go.
STREAT
Centre for Cities
Centre for Just Places
City of Melbourne
Good Karma Network
Municipal Association of Victoria
RMIT
VicHealth
Village Well
Queen Victoria Market
Natoora
Sustainable Table
Open Food Network
Foodprints, University of Melbourne
Moving Feast
Community Grocer
STREAT Centre for Cities Centre for Just Places City of Melbourne Good Karma Network Municipal Association of Victoria RMIT VicHealth Village Well Queen Victoria Market Natoora Sustainable Table Open Food Network Foodprints, University of Melbourne Moving Feast Community Grocer
Why it’s important
Our food system is in urgent need of transformation. Many communities across Greater Melbourne struggle with food affordability, access to nourishing food close to home, and our environment is struggling with impact of our current food practices.
Food is a powerful gateway to social and cultural connection, fostering a personal relationship with the natural world. Our food system is intricately linked with the broader urban environment and holds immense potential for driving societal transformation.
Currently, the food system is struggling to support human and environmental health or withstand climate-related challenges. By localising and regenerating our food systems, honouring First Nations knowledge, supporting Safe and Just solutions, and uniting the sector towards a common goal, we aim to create a resilient and sustainable food system for Greater Melbourne.
our latest report
How did we get here? What have we come to accept as ‘status quo’? And what’s standing in the way of meaningful collective action? In our latest report, ‘The Foodie City we need to become: Greater Melbourne’s systemic opportunity’, we explore the systemic challenges and abundant opportunities that lie ahead.
how it works
There is amazing activity happening all across the food system in Greater Melbourne and our connected regions. There always has been, it’s what makes Melbourne the vibrant, foodie city we are.
And, at times of transition there needs to be scaffolding and coordination to create centres of gravity that tilts activity centering food justice from outlier into the mainstream. This is what we do, act as connective tissue between an existing and emerging system
Backstage of this looks like an ‘architecture’ that holds lots of relationships, system insights, directs transition pathways and creates coherence (not consensus) for what we do.
Front stage in Melbourne this looks like a set of on the ground projects, happening in collaboration with partners all across the city. When added up, these are designed to be the building blocks to shift the energy, and purpose, of a system towards one that serves everyone, not just a few.
Get INvolved
Dheepa Jayapalan
Lead Convenor (15 Min Cornucopias)
dheepa@regen.melbourne
Read the 2024 sensemaking report, which sets the scene for the development of 15 Min Cornucopias
Sign up to the The Cornucopia, a monthly newsletter which has upcoming events, curated research and all your street gossip.
resources, updates and notes from the field
Featured Projects
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Wellbeing Capital: hyper local, distributed grant-making
A participatory grantmaking tool that allows funders to allocate capital to aligned community groups, who decide how to use it through decentralised, mutually agreed upon outcomes. RM is leading the testing and expansion of the tool across community groups in Greater Melbourne.
Partners: The Wellbeing Protocol, Village Zero, Bendigo Bank, Menzies Foundation
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Climate change exchange: Building capacity for climate change adaptation
The Climate Change Exchange brings together experts and ideas to help communities respond to the increasing threats of climate change in socially just and effective ways. RM is the lead in driving the re-establishment of a much needed partnership and network.
Partners: La Trobe University, RMIT, Federation of Community Legal Centres
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Climate change exchange: Building capacity for climate change adaptation
The Climate Change Exchange brings together experts and ideas to help communities respond to the increasing threats of climate change in socially just and effective ways. RM is the lead in driving the re-establishment of a much needed partnership and network.
Partners: La Trobe University, RMIT, Federation of Community Legal Centres
