Members of the ALPA Retail Team attended the 2021 AMSANT Food Summit held in Alice Springs on the 24^th and 25^th of June, including Joan Djamalaka Dhamarrandji (ALPA Director representing Galiwin’ku), Florence Marraykama (Senior Store Supervisor, ALPA Milingimbi Store), Michael Dykes (General Manager of Retail), Khia De Silva (ALPA Nutrition Manager) and Laura Baddeley (ALPA Nutritionist)

The AMSANT Food Summit brought community leaders and stakeholders together to share ideas and develop Aboriginal community-led solutions to food security issues that are affecting Aboriginal communities of the Northern Territory and wider central Australian region.

At the Summit, food security was defined as being two parts:

• Food security is when the food from our ancestors is protected and always there for us and our children.
• It is also when we can easily access and afford the right nontraditional food for a collective healthy and active life.

When we are food secure we can provide, share and fulfil our responsibilities, we can choose good food, knowing how to make choices and how to prepare and use it’

ALPA were recognised as leaders in addressing food security with their trail-blazing Health and Nutrition Strategy to improve food availability and affordability in the communities we serve. Our Strategy was presented as the first of a series of work that has been conducted over the past 30+ years to improve food security.

Retail General Manager Michael Dykes said,

“Healthy food affordability continues to be a primary focus for ALPA and the Independent stores we partner with. Helping the Summit delegation understand the costs that remote store operators must absorb was an important step to bringing the group together with a shared understanding.  The power in initiating a collaborative task force made up of influential members covering the key sectors could, in time, make a huge difference to prices across remote Australia. We have been talking about this for too long. It is time for action.”

Presentations and workshops were conducted over the two days, covering food affordability, food access, food production, community leadership to make decisions to improve food security and support through partnerships with sectors that impact an individual’s ability to be food secure.

The recommendations generated from these workshops will be presented and shared widely to highlight how best to address issues contributing to food security.

To read more about this project visit

https://www.amsant.org.au/amsant-food-summit-24th-25th-june-2021/