We are proud partners on the Monash University led study ‘Benchmarking for Heathy Stores’ which is currently underway across many remote community stores, including 10 stores from the ALPA group. So, what is the study about?

The study will test a process to assess the healthiness of remote stores. After the assessment the participating stores will receive a report to see how they are tracking against other stores and receive feedback on ways to increase the healthiness of their store. The process will occur annually for three years to see if providing this feedback can help stores improve their healthiness rating over time. If found to be effective, we will support the research team to advocate for this process is rolled out across Australia.

The ALPA Nutrition team already complete regular assessments on all the stores within the ALPA group to see how our comprehensive Store Nutrition Policy is being implemented. Our Nutrition team liaise with relevant members of the ALPA retail team and our suppliers to resolve barriers preventing stores from fully implementing our policy. Over the years our continuous quality improvement processes have greatly improved the healthiness of our stores.

We have shared our knowledge and experience in store nutrition assessments with the research team to help design the benchmarking model. The photo below was taken at a workshop to co-design the benchmarking model. This workshop brought researchers, Store Board members, remote retailers, and remote health professionals together to have their varied input. ALPA were represented by our Directors, Djamalaka Dhamarrandji, Micky Wunungmurra, our Operations Manager Eve Bransgrove, and our Nutrition Manager Khia De Silva.

The first assessments are currently being completed by researchers and Public Health Nutritionists. We look forward to seeing and sharing our results with Store Boards and supporting them to make nutrition decisions for their stores.