Food Relief Good Practice Guide
Empowering Food Relief Services: A Guide for Providers
Despite Australia’s strong economy, food insecurity continues to affect approximately one in six households. While non-profit organisations and social enterprises strive to address this need through food relief, these efforts often cannot address the long-term complex root causes of the issue.
To better support people experiencing food insecurity and foster long-term change, food relief services must be designed to offer more than just food. This involves choice, dignity, and community connections—a shift that requires practical guidance and sector-wide collaboration.
The Food Relief Good Practice Guide
This guide is a resource developed by researchers at the Centre for Social Impact Flinders, in collaboration with project partners, to assist food relief providers to enhance service delivery and advance community impact. It is designed for food relief providers, community organisations, and funders committed to improving food security and the quality of food relief services
Through research by Centre for Social Impact Flinders, many food relief providers and community organisations have said they want to evolve their service models and create more social impact. This guide describes practical ways that organisations can evolve beyond emergency food provision.
The Food Relief Practice Guide supports providers and funders to design practices, and plan for future quality improvements, ultimately enhancing outcomes for both clients and communities.
Who is this Guide for?
The Food Relief Good Practice Guide is designed for food relief providers, community organisations, and funding bodies that are committed to improving food security and the quality of food relief services. It’s a practical tool for:
- Planning and designing new services
- Enhancing existing services
- Guiding quality improvements that align with the values of choice, dignity, and community integration
How to Use the Guide
Whether you are a service provider, policy advisor, or funder, this guide offers a flexible, actionable approach. It’s organised around key practice areas, each accompanied by real-world examples, insights, and action points to support you in translating the principles of the South Australian Food Relief Charter into day-to-day practice.
What’s Inside: Optimal Practice Recommendations for Community Food Relief
The guide offers actionable recommendations across nine domains. These domains emphasise people-centeredness and dignity, nutritional quality, access, and opportunities for social inclusion, as well as collaborative, place-based approaches and business models, with skilled workforces.
A focus on outcomes is encouraged, informed by evidence, lived experience, and continuous quality improvement through evaluation, information-sharing, and marketing.
Each recommendation is backed by research and sector insights gathered through the “Towards Zero Hunger” project, led by the Centre for Social Impact Flinders and funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage program.
Download the Guide
For further information or to discuss anything in this Appendix, please contact Centre for Social Impact Flinders at csiflinders@flinders.edu.au .
Download additional food relief resources
- South Australian Food Relief Charter: A foundational document outlining guiding principles and a shared vision for food relief services.
- Nutrition Guidelines for the Food Relief Sector: Practical nutrition guidelines designed to complement the Food Relief Charter. Email preventivehealthsa.healthyfood@sa.gov.au for access.
- Social Supermarket Best Practice Rubric: A planning tool for establishing community hubs that provide more than just food.
- Food Secure Communities in South Australia: Summarises actions for improving food and social systems to improve food security
- Community Food Education Model for South Australia: Outlines approaches for community food education
- Responding to Food Relief Needs: A historical overview and key considerations for food relief evolution in Australia
Acknowledgements
The research project ‘ Towards zero hunger: improving food relief services in Australia’ involved Centre for Social Impact Flinders, partnering with Foodbank SA&NT, Anglicare SA, The Food Centre Inc. (TFC), Department of Human Services SA, and Preventive Health SA (formerly Wellbeing SA), plus researchers from UniSA and the Centre for Health in all Policies Research Translation.
