We work with the strengths of communities and base our work on the belief that the drivers of food choice are best understood by those who live them day-to-day and that appropriate solutions are best found through working collaboratively.

There is no single solution to dietary improvement in remote communities. We believe the most effective approach to dietary improvement is to provide the best available evidence to those who can directly influence change and to support the capacity of those responsible for ensuring that everyone in the community can access enough food for good health.

A framework to inform food-related policy in remote Indigenous Australia, is providing the know-how needed to support store boards to make important pricing policy decisions that preference healthy foods. Public Health Nutritionists deliver an essential nutrition promotion service to remote communities. They are now using a tested community of practice model developed by Monash University together with Menzies Nutrition researchers to equip them with skills in working effectively with remote stores.

Nutrition cuts across nearly all sectors in a community. We developed The Good Food Systems model which can facilitate the coming together of stakeholders to consider how they can each enhance what they do to ensure good food for everyone in the community. This model is helping practitioners consider how they can support and sustain food system level change.  We will use this model in the future to support store boards make decisions about their store environment to support healthy food purchasing. The Food and Health Communication across Cultures resource has been distributed across Australia and is helping to enhance the cross-cultural communication skills of practitioners. 

  1. Ferguson, M., O’Dea, K., Holden, S., Miles, E., Brimblecombe, J. (2017) Food and beverage price discounts to improve health in remote Aboriginal communities: mixed method evaluation of a natural experiment. Aust NZ J Public Health. 41:32-7; doi: 10.1111/1753-6405.12616.
  2. Brimblecombe, J., Bailie, R., van den Boogaard, C., Wood, B., Liberato, S., Ferguson, M. et al (2017). Feasibility of a novel participatory multi-sector continuous improvement approach to enhance food security in remote Indigenous Australian communities. SSM Population Health. In Press. doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2017.06.002
  3. Ferguson, M., O'Dea, K., Chatfield, M., Moodie, M., Altman, J., & Brimblecombe, J. (2015) The comparative cost of food and beverages at remote Indigenous communities, Northern Territory, Australia. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. 
  4. Holden, S., Ferguson, M., Brimblecombe, J., & Palermo, C.E. (2015). Can a community of practice equip public health nutritionists to work with remote retail to improve the food supply? Rural Remote Health, 15(4),3464.
  5. Brimblecombe, J., van den Boogaard, C., Ritchie, J., Bailie, R., Coveney, J., & Liberato, S. (2014). From targets to ripples: tracing the process of developing a community capacity building appraisal tool with remote Australian Indigenous communities to tackle food security. BMC Public Health, 14, 914.
  6. Brimblecombe, J., van den Boogaard, C., Wood, B., et al. (2015). Development of the good food planning tool: A food system approach to food security in indigenous Australian remote communities. Health Place, 34, 54-62.
  7. Liberato, S.C., Brimblecombe, J., Ritchie, J., Ferguson, M., & Coveney, J. (2011). Measuring capacity building in communities: a review of the literature. BMC.Public Health, 2011,11,850.
  8. Colles, S.L., Belton, S., & Brimblecombe, J. (2015). Insights into nutritionists' practices and experiences in remote Australian Aboriginal communities. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
  9. Colles, S.L., Maypilama, E., & Brimblecombe, J. (2014). Food, food choice and nutrition promotion in a remote Australian Aboriginal community. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 20(4),365-372.