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February 26, 2014

UOW aids bid to bring Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food to ¾«¶«´«Ã½

UOW is part of a collaborative community bid to bring celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and his innovative healthy food initiative, Ministry of Food, to ¾«¶«´«Ã½.

UOW’s Global Challenges Program and new in collaboration with Healthy Cities Illawarra, Destination ¾«¶«´«Ã½ and ¾«¶«´«Ã½ City Council have launched a bid to bring the celebrity chef, who has become known for spearheading healthy food initiatives around the world, to ¾«¶«´«Ã½ to help transform the region’s cooking skills.

Ministry of Food aims to inspire inexperienced cooks to get in the kitchen and learn how to make meals from scratch. With hands-on cooking classes, participants learn where their food comes from and how they can feed their families tasty and nutritious food.

Global Challenges is a major research initiative at UOW designed to harness the expertise of world-class researchers to solve complex, real-world problems. The establishment of the School of Health and Society also reflects UOW’s commitment to aligning our teaching and research to community’s health and social needs.

Global Challenges Director Professor Chris Gibson said the campaign aligns with the program’s overarching theme of Transforming Lives and Regions and the challenge of Living Well, Longer by highlight the importance of access to fresh, healthy food to communities.

“Our society’s relationship with food is fundamentally important to health, wellbeing and quality of life,” Professor Gibson said.

“The proposed Ministry of Food Pop-Up Kitchen holds enormous potential to help us respond to two of our global challenges: Transforming Lives and Regions and Living Well, Longer by engaging with the community in a grassroots way.

“By empowering people to cook and consume food in a healthy way, and by drawing attention to our relationship with food, we can tackle basic problems such as nutrition and disease prevention.

“It’s very exciting to imagine that this initiative could produce genuine social change in our region in a truly collaborative way.”

Associate Professor Heather Yeatman, from the School of Health and Society, said a Ministry of Food in ¾«¶«´«Ã½ would have a positive impact on the wider community.

“A Ministry of Food in the Illawarra would build on current community activities. We have high levels of need in our region and people would benefit through this added focus on preparing healthy food.”

Living Well, Longer, which is part of UOW’s Global Challenges program, focuses on the drastic demographic shifts arising from our ageing population and how we can ensure that a longer life is also a healthier life.

Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food has been a success both in Australia and in the United Kingdom, helping to combat diseases such as obesity and diabetes and encourage communities to improve their cooking skills.

The campaign is based on an initiative that began in Britain during the Second World War. In a bid to help families and communities to feed themselves on minimal rations, the British government created a national network of cooking teachers and food advisors. 

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