Background and context
Food security is a major issue to consider before an area is approved as being safe to supply food to people. Food security is the capacity to access hygienic, wholesome, and sufficient food to society. The City of Greater Geelong is located in Victoria, Australia, specifically in the western of the Victoria state and the south-west of Melbourne. It covers a total area of 1,240 square kilometers. Statics shows that it has a total population of 210,000 people; they took an initiative to investigate reasons why food security is not easy to attain in that area; they also try to come up with possible solutions. The main issues are the high cost of nutritious foods, a poor transport system, and availability of fatty foods at low costs, and poor knowledge in regards to the outlets of the nutritious food (Beah 1997, p.55).
According to the statistics, 2.5% of Greater Geelong residents faced food insecurity, which is consistent with the low level of income in Greater Geelong as compared to the Victorian State (Murphy 2008, p.88). The reason is that the weekly income per household in Greater Geelong averaged $685 in the year 2010-2011, which is relatively low when compared to $749, which was the median household income per week, recorded in the Victorian State.
The income disparity is reflected in employment where only 52.7% of the workforce in Greater Geelong was highly skilled relative to 56.3% in the Victorian State. In addition, 22.9% of the Greater Geelong faced transport limitations in 2010, which is comparatively higher than the 13.7% of the population with limited transportation in the Baron South West and Victorian State regions. Conversely, due to economic and infrastructural challenges, it is conceivable that only 59.3% of children in Greater Geelong underwent Child Health Assessments by the Maternal and Child Health Service in 2010-2011, which is moderately low when compared to the 62.2% of children who were assessed for health and development in the Victorian State (Donaldson 2012, p.66).
Current HP action and future HP needs
Meals served in cafes have been considered as one of the strategies to deal with food insecurity. Residents of Great Geelong with the “Cafe Meals” card are at an advantage of getting meals at a lower cost than the standard prices. The Cafe meals association is also able to offer a free lunch to individuals of the association, which comes along with advertising another relief service. They also support and fund functions like charity and competitions.
Providers of the ‘Geelong emergency food relief’ have contributed greatly to reducing food insecurity (Lammerting 2010, p. 33). Even though the method is not as effective as the meal cafe, the residents are assured of a stable food supply. When food supply drops or reduces, the Geelong emergency food relief can help and provide food to the residents of Geelong (Marquis 1997, p.90).
Improvement of infrastructure has increased food security to 57%. When the transport and communication are improved in Geelong, the residents will be able to acquire nutritious food that was not supplied to the city before. Through communication, they can get information on various outlets that can offer nutritious food at varied prices (Rugh 1994, p.40).
Planning and choosing what to store is a strategy that can be used in the future by Geelong occupants. This can be achieved by choosing an item of storage that in most cases must be durable and have a long life; it can also be achieved by the use of preservation methods and avoiding anything that might create a moisture environment which in turn interferes with preservation. This method will enable members to store what they have in excess now for the future which might end up having a shortage of food supply (Goode 2007, p.77).
There must be educating of people on the importance of taking nutritious food compared to fatty food which is at their disposal at cheaper prices. Organizing seminars and campaigns to involve people of Geelong to school them on the importance of nutritious foods should be introduced to educate the whole community. At schools, children should be introduced to the importance of a nutritious diet as well (Chapman 2008, p.99).
Processes and methods
The data and information sources include statistics from the census, internet resources and literature. The advantages of using these sources are that they are accurate since it does not interfere with the data one has written, the information given is easy to understand and the data is detailed and comprehensive; all the information related to the study is also discussed to ensure proper understanding of one’s topic of study. The data is easy and quick to acquire since it is at the disposal of anyone, which is not limited to a certain group of people (Boyd 2012, p.50).
A major weakness of the data sources consists in the fact that they were published in 2012-2011. Such information is not reflective of current statistical trends and therefore, does not provide an accurate outlook of the present environment. To mitigate such a weakness, surveys, interviews and questionnaires may be employed as effective data gathering methods because they allow a large scale sampling, and can be relatively easy to quantify, depending on the questions used (Farrar 2007, p.34).
Reference List
Beah, I 1997, A Long Way, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Berlin.
Boyd, R 2012, Who Will Care?, Brookshine, Australia.
Chapman, R 2008, Thinking about democracy, Cengage, Boston.
Donaldson, W 2012 The Runes of the Earth, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Farrar, D 2007, A Long Way Gone, Parkhouse, London.
Goode, W 2007, Dictionary of trade policy terms, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Lammerting, K 2010, Inspirational Gardens of New Zealand, Penguin Group, New Zealand.
Marquis, W 1997, Finance and Industry, LMT Press, London.
Murphy, P 2008, The Business of Resort Management, Butterworth-Heinemann, London.
Rugh, A 1994, International Books, Saur Verlag, Brisbane.