Cultural foods in South East Queensland
Food security means being able to find enough food which is safe and nutritious for an active and healthy life.
“My favourite food is fish and banana….we haven’t found the [banana’s] for cooking here, it’s hard to find”
Devota
Food security is more than being able to buy food, but also that the food is what you like and what you know. It should meet your cultural, religious and spiritual needs.
Up to 70% of people from refugee backgrounds living in Australia do not have physical, social or economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Our vision is for culturally diverse people to have better availability, accessibility and utilisation of their foods to improve their physical, mental and cultural health.
Our Mission
What: To identify best practice evidence for improving access to food for people with a lived refugee experience
How: We will work with communities to learn how to create and share ways of accessing cultural foods in a cultural way
Who: Current, newly arrived and future families with a lived refugee experience living in South East Queensland
Who We Are
This project is a community project run through a committee. Our members are people from Africa, Middle East, Asia and Australia who are passionate about helping people eat their cultural foods. Our members are:
Nehal Eltahir, Girmay Gebremedhin, Tina Gingell, Evelyn Pe
We also have a team of research assistants that are out in the community talking to people:
Rishita Adhikari, Fatema Alizada, Sana Dabagh, Nehal Eltahir, Tina Gingell, Fulgence Ntahomvukiye, Evelyn Pe
This is a PhD project for Tina Gingell and is supported by QUT.
What We Have Done
We have been out in the community learning about the importance of food in different cultures and how this helps settlement in Australia.
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A Taste of Culture – Logan |
Iftar Dinner |
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Focus Groups |
Green P Farm Community Garden |
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A Taste of Culture – Gold Coast |
Co-Design Workshops |
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Community Interviews
“Any person, straightaway we get to know them, even if you’re not comfortable, you have to be someone that does good. There are a lot of people, for example that I don’t like, but what about them? If there is some help needed, I help and don’t just watch.”
(Gingell et al, 2024)*
Between August and December 2022, the community researchers spoke to community members such as: farmers, grocery store owners, market stall owners, restaurant owners and community leaders.
“Instead of like helping each other, we come and see friends as well. Okay. It’s, it’s more like [a] meeting area. Seeing, like seeing friends that we don’t have time to go and see each other, so they come to the market and then we see them.”
“Socialising with, you know? Yes. What do you call it? Like it’s the community.”
(Gingell et al, 2024)*
We found that community members created connections across countries and cultures. Food has a special meaning, and helps people find their place in Australia, by supporting the settlement journey.
* Gingell, T., Adhikari, R., Eltahir, N., Ntahomvukiye, F., Pe, E., Murray, K., Correa-Velez, I., & Gallegos, D. (2024). ‘It is human work’: qualitatively exploring community roles that facilitate cultural food security for people from refugee backgrounds. Public Health Nutrition, 27(1), e64, Article e64. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980024000326
The Green P Farm
The Green P Community farm as a space for 60 refugees families and 77 garden beds opened since 2012 located in Deagon North Brisbane, growing organic food and working in partnerships with local restaurants, cafes, schools and community members. In September 2021, we interviewed some of the farmers:
Contact Us
If you are interested in hearing more about the project, or have some ideas you would like to share, we would love to hear from you:
Phone: 07 3069 7314
Email: tina.gingell@qut.edu.au
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Lead Researchers
