CEO News – 2023 wrap up
ceo NEWS
As we all round out the year and plan our time with family and friends, I thought it would be a great time to share a few of our projects with you that will be happening in 2024.
I sincerely wish you a safe and restful holiday period, with some time to reflect on the achievements of the year, and how lucky we are living where we do, in lutruwita/Tasmania, and spare a thought (or a donation to a worthy cause if you can) for those in other parts of the world who are heading into this time of year in the midst of chaos and war.
I am looking forward to 2024, there is much to do, and we are ready for it. Keep in touch as always.
Warm wishes, Jen
Warm regards,
Jen
Growing Good 2023 was an absolute blast! As always, it takes a village to pull this kind of event off, and boy did we have the A-team this year.
Led by Ollie, Stephen Peak and Laura Dyba, our supporters enjoyed a night of laughs, amazing food, good stories and celebration. Sincere and heartfelt THANK YOU!!! We raised a whopping $20K to help us fund our operations and advocacy work going forward. We hope to do it all again in 2024, to bring people together who are doing their bit to support our local food system.
Submission to Tasmanian Tourism and Hospitality Workforce Advisory Committee
Many sectors are intrinsically linked to our food system – health, education, tourism, hospitality, agriculture; the list goes on. So when we see an opportunity to connect the dots and encourage others to take a broad lens, we jump at the chance to share our thoughts and encourage collaboration.
We recently submitted a letter to the members of the Advisory Committee who are reviewing the current challenges in workforce development for both the Tourism and Hospitality sectors.
In our eyes, the end goal for Commercial Cookery curriculum, is to see this changed to link it back to seasonality and local food!
Small-scale meat processing project
Sprout was successful in gaining funding to undertake a project which includes a full scan of the state’s service-kill sector looking at supply and demand, geographical spread, stock types, as well as other models that are being used in other parts of Australia or globally.
We will be surveying farmers, chatting to those who play a part in the full supply chain from the farmgate through to the customer – that includes farmers, abattoir operators, logistics providers, butchers, mobile abattoir operators, Biosecurity Tas, NRE, Dept of State Growth and TasTAFE.
Our end goal is to have a final report that has a summary of the learnings from our research and surveys and recommendations for how this part of our food system could look in the future.
Keep an eye out for our project plan in early 2024 as we get cracking on this project. Thanks to all those people who have contacted me directly, to say they would like to be involved with the project, and offering their volunteer support. I am humbled!! You are such legends! Couldn’t do this without you. Here’s to forming another A-team!!
State Govt Taskforce
Sprout Tasmania has accepted the request from the Minister of Primary Industries Jo Palmer, to sit as a member of the newly formed Tasmanian Livestock Taskforce, alongside other industry representative bodies and State Government departments.
We are your voice!
Please get in touch via jennifer@sprout.org.au with ‘Taskforce’ in your email subject, if you have any thoughts about the changes you feel are needed to bring about a transparent processing sector, with the highest animal and human welfare at its core, that is fit for purpose for farmers of all sizes.
The first meeting is on today 19th December and then kicking off in earnest in 2024 with the next meeting scheduled for 11th January. Link to Media Release here.