Sustainable Living Festival hosts Acres and Acres food security talk

Founder of the Acres and Acres market gardening cooperative Josh Collings was keen to share his experiences on creating sustainable food supplies to help communities become resilient to supply challenges.

"If you've been into the fresh food department recently you've probably noticed that the fresh food department is really sky rocketing," he said.

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"And our shelves (in Corryong) were empty the other weekend."

Mr Collings said he'd seen capsicum for sale for $13/kg.

"That's because it's travelling so far, petrol has gone up and costs of labour has gone up," he said.

"But if you grow your own food...you can keep your prices for food the same as they have been."

That's where Acres and Acres comes in. The market collective grows produce within communities so they have their own source of food.

Albury Wodonga Food Network's Megan Hunt coordinated the delivery of the Acres and Acres workshop and said the market garden collective started after the 2020 bushfires cut off food supplies to the Upper Murray area.

"The community in the bushfires was cut off for 24 days from the supplies that normally came into town from trucks to fill the shops," she said.

"It actually exposes the issue of food security, so this is very much a real insight to what our community has experienced.

"It's all about how we can be a bit more resilient as a community and food systems are a part of that."

Mr Collings said the social enterprise was quick to gain support to grow fruits, vegetables and flowers to sell directly to consumers and restaurants and the model helped communities stay resilient in the face of food challenges.

"But my part of it is around bringing people together and how we can develop this model and then duplicate it for other communities," he said.

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