In two weeks we begin another term at TAFE, I have to keep a journal of all the activity that I do at Community Foodies. So for anybody who is interested I thought I would start off with some background about the Community Foodies project.

There are Community Foodies groups all over South Australia, the group that I am involved with is based at Enfield in the Northern Suburbs of Adelaide. I am unsure of this but believe that this project is unique to South Australia.

25/05/2009 7:35
This morning I start a new chapter in going for what I want out of life. After leaving work of the 13th of March I have spent my time doing very little.Today I'm starting a new volunteering program called Community Foodies. This free program runs for 7 weeks then you are committed to follow through with a 12 month long volunteer placement.Community Foodies is a government run program in association with Health SA (the health department).The objective of the course is to teach its participants basic nutrition and presentation skills so we can present them to the wider community. To make a clear picture the course assumes that you know how to cook and have a very basic knowledge of nutrition and a willingness to impart the things you learn into the community on a larger scale. The course I have "enrolled" into is at Enfield. Enfield is in the northeastern suburbs of Adelaide and is considered to be a lower socio-economic area.I have to go now so I can get the bus across town to get there but tune in later on because as the weeks go on I'll be sharing with you what this is teaching me.

22/06/2009 7:52 am
Today is going to be tough, I'm off to Enfield again today for Community Foodies. Today is going to be challenging as we do the session on mandatory abuse reporting today. All forms of abuse of children has no excuse. I will not be the only one touched by this today our course group has a lot of young mums in it who have never had to be aware of a topic like this.

23/06/2009 12:06 am Children deserve to be safe and loved. As I predicted yesterday’s session at Community Foodies was difficult.I have done mandatory notification (of child abuse) before and they are always stressful. Everybody has different beliefs and understandings of what is abuse and what is discipline. The technicality of our group is that there are many different ages groups in our "class" and some have a lot of exposure to abuse situations with in the community while others have none. The equaliser of course is it was sombre and raw for all. Child Abuse is more common than acknowledged yet in every state the issue is dealt with different so telling you all what was discussed and learnt would be pointless, however I will say this listen to what children say as when children tell adults these things it's because they trust you enough to hold their inner pain and it is discovered that 97% of reported cases are serious enough to be acted upon and that is a statistic none of us should ignore.

14/07/2009 12:22 pm Final week of Community Foodies
Yesterday was the last weekly session of Community Foodies. No more 6am Monday mornings for me. Seriously though I am going to miss the routine even if I have the enormous life change of study ahead of me.As I have mentioned before the main purpose of this initial training is to educate the public about basic nutrition and lifestyle skills like budgeting. A large part if being able to get this information out there is the ability to present the information like you know what you are talking about while being confident.To show that we have these skills However this is not the last we see of each other now we have completed the basic training there will be further training given every 6 weeks and the opportunity to also see and learn from previous groups.

20/07/2009 3:00 pm The last weekly session of Community Foodies
Yesterday was the last weekly session of Community Foodies. No more 6am Monday mornings for me. Seriously though I am going to miss the routine even if I have the enormous life change of study ahead of me. As I have mentioned before the main purpose of this initial training is to educate the public about basic nutrition and lifestyle skills like budgeting. A large part if being able to get this information out there is the ability to present the information like you know what you are talking about while being confident.To show that we have these skills for the next 2 weeks we have been divided into pairs and will make a presentation to the group. My partner, Eileen and I will present ours next week before graduation. We have been put in groups, most of us in pairs we then had to plan a demonstration lasting 20 minutes. Eileen and I decided we made our presentation about dips. The dips that we chose were yoghurt & cucumber (Tzatziki), Beetroot and avocado (guacamole). We chose these because dips are suitable for all ages from toddlers to adults in party mode. They are a great starter or a healthy snack. All the dips we chose are yoghurt based. Coindentially all our recipes include yoghurt as their base ingredient.


The time had come that our initial training had finished yet just begun as the educating doesn't stop here but now it's up to us to educate others. This will not be the last we see of each other either. Now we have completed the basic training there will be further training given every 6 weeks and the opportunity to also see and learn from other Foodies.

Prior to embarking on the Community Foodies venture I had knowledge of the stuff that we have learnt but now I have the outlet to teach people what I know by getting the community to understand the key messages we were taught.

1. Eat MORE Fruit and Vegetables
2. Eat more WHOLE Foods (less processed foods)
3. Enjoy Breakfast everyday
4. Drink MORE Water

They seem like simple things but how many of us really do this everyday?

16/08/2009 3:46 pm Foodies come together
I may have started studying but that doesn't mean that my commitment to Community Foodies has been forgotten. The purpose of Community Foodies training was to provide its participants with the basic training tools to provide programs to people within the community. We were never going to be educated about everything we need in six weeks of training, as there is so much to learn. To continue that process our group and the group that went before us gather every 4-6 weeks to learn a new unit and discuss new projects that have become available. Last Monday was the first combined session with the community foodies from the previous term. The topics we covered fats, carbohydrates and proteins. In this subject alone there is so much detail to cover that it was amazing that we got the session finished on time.

As well as the professional development session we needed to discuss the new projects that Foodies. For us, CF newbies it was the first opportunity for many of us to put the training into practice and as a result I have got my first "jobs", a lunch held for a group of HIV positive women and assisting SA's public housing body to establish a community garden set up at Gilberton. The garden project will be setting up balcony gardens for a number of flats in a large group of 82 flats. This wasn't what I was expecting when I first put my hand up for the project but I'm hopefully that my knowledge of community gardening from my years in the community garden are put into use, I will just have to think about it differently.

Using pots instead of direct sowing into the ground is something I will have to get used to anyway as I and co-gardener Robert move into a raised bed at Fern Avenue. The other advantage I have is the understanding of how residents of housing trust accommodation need support and compassion as many of them have health issues of either a physical or mental nature.

The other project, is The HIV lunch will be held in October and was established by another Community Foodie it has been in the planning stage for quite some time but the meeting on Tuesday will be my first involvement. Excuse the pun but I'm hoping that it will be a positive and uplifting process as this is the type of project that unifies people in the face of diverse consequence. AIDS was once a feared disease and still now is thought of as a disease that drug users and the promiscuous get but that is just not true but amid the fear is networks that show good health is essential for happiness and well being.

It is almost a year since the original blogs were written (on a different blogsite) and upon reflection, Community Foodies has enriched my life remarkably. I am studying Nutrition and Dietetics at TAFE now and with only months to go before we graduate from this course I think I have learnt more from Foodies than what I have done at TAFE.