The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
UNSW is committed to ending hunger, and demonstrates its commitment through:
In 2022, there were between 691 and 783 million people in the world facing hunger, according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation. Hunger originates from inaccessibility to clean, safe and nutritious food all year round, leading to food insecurity. This situation is dependent on geography and economics and disproportionately affects the vulnerable. However, hunger is not just limited to countries lacking economic resources. Over 2 million households in Australia (21%) experienced severe food insecurity in 2022. Poverty is at the core of all hunger (Goal #1) and this problem is likely to increase in future due to climate change and population growth.
In this video, A/Prof Jayashree Arcot, Prof Johannes Le Coutre and Dr Sophia Lin break down some of the key challenges behind SDG #2.
A cross-faculty working group of staff and students dedicated to creating food growing space on campus for local food production, hands-on practical classes, restorative community action and opportunities for food related research. Food growing is incorporated into a range of courses at UNSW including urban agriculture, intellectual property, food security, art and design, environmental humanities, biology, ecology and public health nutrition.
Arc Food Hub provides groceries to UNSW students experiencing food insecurity. It operates every Monday, Wednesday and Friday providing 150 hampers each day, and there is a 24 hour food pantry where students can access healthy food basics outside of hours.
Premises on campus is provided by UNSW Estate Management and delivery is enabled by donations such as volunteering, community building and sustainability initiatives through partnerships across the university. This service saw over 12,520+ meals provided in 2022.
The Producers are a volunteer-based group dedicated to planting, maintaining and harvesting produce, and promote sustainability on campus.
They look after the Urban Garden at the Village Green, a community-run garden where the UNSW community grow fresh fruit and vegetables.
The Good Food Charter supports the UNSW community of students, staff, retailers and catering services to select healthier food and drink options. It has been developed by the UNSW Health Promotions Unit, UNSW Wellbeing, The George Institute for Global Health, Estate Management and Arc Student Life
UNSW has a dedicated Staff Hardship Fund. Financial assistance can be granted to assist with immediate and essential expenses including bills or rent, temporary accommodation or food insecurity.
The UNSW Institute for Global Development and its collaborators lead projects to improve food and income security, creating livelihood options and build technical and farming capacity for local farmers.
The Centre is committed to bringing Australia into a new era of high technology food production, transforming one of our most important industries and reinforcing our place as a major world food producer.
Aims to increase the awareness of new and existing support services available to students including financial hardship support and assistance. The FIAP focuses on areas including: providing products and services that provide financial education, support to all students and assistance to those facing financial hardship.
UNSW has a history of environmental stewardship across research, learning & teaching and campus operations across several decades. The Environmental Sustainability Report 2022 measures and outlines our achievements to date.
The Food and Health Cluster is committed to driving innovation in the interconnected research areas of health, food process engineering and sustainability and leading researchers are delivering real-world impact in Food Science, Nutrition and Engineering.
This report outlines UNSW's performance against the SDGs in 2022.
