We’re so fortunate to have partnered with ACU, Deakin and Monash Universities and have several students completing their placement requirements with us at the moment
Bianca & Rachael
Bianca and Rachael have been helping our at our Pakenham and Carlton Market for their Community and Public Health placement as part of their Deakin University Masters of Dietetics. In their time with us they are evaluating what aspects of our markets are of the greatest value to the communities in which they operate, as well as any areas for improvement. From there, they will be coming up with ways we can better serve our community to ensure that we are able to continue to provide increased access to fresh and affordable produce that is culturally appropriate for our communities. They also recently conducted an education session with our team to teach us more about the Australian Dietary Guidelines and the role of nutrition in disease prevention.
When we asked why Bianca feels access to fruit and vegetables is important, she said “There's so much evidence to show the correlation between fruit and veg intake on a healthy balanced diet in living a healthy life and prevention of disease. Accessibility, affordability and quality help individuals meet these requirements and improve their overall wellbeing”.
We asked Rachael why she thinks community is important and she said “Community is integral in supporting the wellbeing of individuals through equitable access to health services, social interaction and access to nourishing fruit and vegetables”.
Natalie & Jie Shi
We are so lucky to have had Natalis and Jie Shi join our Fitzroy Market Team recently as part of their Bachelor of Nutrition Science placement at Monash Uni. In their time with us they are conducting a quantitative market analysis, integrating background research and designing interview questions with TCG staff members to evaluate the success and areas for improvement across all of our markets over the last 10 years!
When we asked Natalie what she thinks the main barriers to people accessing a nutritious diet were, she said “There could be lots of barriers preventing people from eating a nutritious diet but one of the biggest challenges would be economic barriers, especially for a low socioeconomic population. They have less weekly household income for food that would reduce their accessibility to nutritious food. More than that, the social environment could also affect people’s preference of food like the advertisement of ultra-processed food and social norms of body image”
We asked Jie Shi why nutrition is important to her and she said “I think food and nutrition is very important as it has many beneficial qualities. It is able to bring people together (socially), able to heal our body in certain ways, and can affect our mental health too. I personally am more interested in the mental health side of things with food, and would love to be able to contribute my knowledge to the world”