Arc Infrastructure fuels Wheatbelt
food relief and nutrition education  

Arc Infrastructure have been long-term Foodbank WA supporters and have for the last three years primarily focused their support where it is much needed in the Wheatbelt communities. 

In 2020 Arc Infrastructure conducted a needs assessment into the Wheatbelt region to identify the degree of food relief required and a potential model which would service the area.  

Since then, Arc Infrastructure have helped us deliver specific and catered food relief into the Wheatbelt by way of funding food hampers, and nom! nutrition education and cooking sessions. 

Being such a widespread region, a huge barrier to food relief is travel to access essential provisions. Nutrition education can also be difficult and expensive to deliver face-to-face due to travel distances. 

Thanks to Arc Infrastructure, more than 1,048 food hampers have been distributed in Merredin, Northam, Wagin and Wyalkatchem in the last year. Additionally, Arc Infrastructure funded the freight costs to support the delivery of hampers to organisations in need in their neighbouring communities. 

Arc Infrastructure’s impact spreads wider with their support of nom! – our nutrition education and cooking program. This program delivers information developed to improve the knowledge, confidence, and skills of Western Australian communities to support healthy eating, food literacy and help decrease food insecurity. 

These sessions are tailored to different age groups and demographics and discuss different health and life skills topics (healthy eating, shopping on a budget, meal planning, food safety and more). 

Thanks to Arc Infrastructure, we delivered nom! sessions to 125 participants throughout the year. These visits have not only impacted families but have also created stronger network with Community Resource Centres, Schools and Aboriginal Women’s groups (Keedac/Shooting Stars).

Through a diverse range of sessions from healthy eating when aging, shopping on a budget, packing healthy lunches and snacks, healthy eating for the little ones and healthy eating for youth, we have increased nutritional curiosity and awareness in the community, provided cooking skills and improved confidence in the kitchen. 

Participants have only positive things to say, such as those from Keedac in Narrogin who said “It’s simple and practical and you get to try out the recipes”; “Join in and enjoy. There’s a lot of great information that you may learn every day. Awesome tips for a healthy diet”. 

Echoing this sentiment was a student from Shooting Stars – Merredin College who said, “Today I learnt that I can cook with any ingredients and can make easy meals at home.”; “I like that I cooked food that I would not normally try”. 

Delivering nom! sessions in the Wheatbelt region has enabled us to connect with local organisations and community members and therefore build stronger relationships and program delivery for the future. Watch this space. 

Thank you, Arc Infrastructure, for your support and for enabling us to reach vulnerable members of the Wheatbelt region with food relief and educational support – they would otherwise go without.