Macdoch Foundation has commissioned a team of Australia’s finest food systems experts to comprehensively map and size institutional food procurement opportunities across Australia for the first time.

Hospitals, aged and residential care facilities, schools, early childhood centres, and correctional facilities collectively spend billions annually on food procurement. Yet we’ve never had a comprehensive national picture of this massive system.

Hosted by Food Connect Foundation, this ambitious project brings together leading expertise from across the country:

Leah Galvin, CF Project Lead (Churchill Fellow), bringing internationally-recognised expertise in institutional food procurement strategy

Emma-Kate Rose – Project Manager (Co-CEO of Food Connect Foundation)

Dr Stephanie Godrich – Project, Edith Cowan University)

Dheepa Jeyapalan – Design and Analysis Lead (Regen Melbourne) – Mapping Lead (Centre for Policy Futures, UQ)

Dr Rachel Carey – Project Advisor (University of Melbourne)

Dr Joanna Horton – Mapping Lead (Centre for Policy Futures, UQ)

Katie Walker – Project Support (Food Connect Foundation)

The 10-week project will map institutional food procurement across hospitals, aged care, schools, prisons, childcare, and other major public institutions. These institutions purchase enormous volumes of food — shaping production patterns, supply chains, nutrition, environmental outcomes, and regional economies.

The team will produce a national report that is authoritative, data-driven and visually compelling, showing how procurement can deliver healthier, fairer, and more sustainable food systems. The report will:

• map the national landscape – identify who buys what, how much, and under what arrangements.
• reveal constraints and opportunities – expose policy gaps, contract practices, equity considerations, and First Nations perspectives.
• quantify change scenarios – model impacts from “business as usual” through to transformative procurement targets on sustainability, nutrition, and waste reduction.
• set a pathway for action – provide practical, high-impact steps for governments, policymakers, and investors to act now.

This project will deliver:
– Australia’s first comprehensive institutional food procurement baseline
– Three evidence-based transformation scenarios
– Practical policy levers and implementation roadmaps
– Clear pathways from incremental to transformative change

With climate change, health crises, and economic challenges demanding immediate action, institutional food procurement represents one of our most powerful – yet underutilised – levers for food system transformation.

The research will culminate in actionable policy tools and implementation strategies that governments, institutions, and investors can use immediately to drive positive change.

Learn more here.