Taste testing in Nauiyu
Taste testing in Nauiyu
Sarah Sealy and Emma Westlund are students who have just completed a community and public health placement with Outback Stores, in collaboration with Flinders University. They were working on a project to evaluate the fruit and vegetable offer in stores, as well as the fruit and vegetable incentive/prize draw and the health and nutrition promotional signage around stores.
Recently they travelled out to Nauiyu, Beswick, Urapunga, Ngukurr and Jilkminggan to have a yarn with store managers, staff, and community members. Emma and Sarah enjoyed seeing the stores and having a look at the beautiful fresh fruit and veg displays as well as getting in the kitchen and testing a healthy recipe.
“The recipe we chose is called ‘Spicy Beef with Vegetables and Rice’ and it seemed to be a hit! The feedback we received in Nauiyu was very positive, with many community members and store staff stating that the meal was tasty and not too spicy. The meal must have been delicious as there was nothing left by the end of the taste test and a few people took a recipe card home to cook the meal again!” said Sarah.
Photos
Top: Sarah Sealy (left) and Emma Westlund (right) preparing the new recipe
Bottom: Josh Hackwill (student from University of Canberra) and Emma distributing the tasters to customers in store
The feedback we received in Nauiyu was very positive.
– Sarah Sealy
This was a joint project aiming to include more vegetables in meals, and was conducted alongside Top End Health, Public Health Nutritionist, Claire Santos, and Josh and Mitch, two Dietetic Students from Canberra University.
“We’ve enjoyed visiting remote communities for the first time, becoming more culturally aware and getting to know the lived experiences and challenges relating to healthy eating,” said Emma.
Sarah and Emma are in their fourth and final year of the Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics degree at Flinders University in Adelaide. After finishing their 7-week placement at Outback Stores, Sarah will start her final honours project, and Emma is looking forward to travelling to Fiji to undertake a research project, before graduating at the end of the year.
Outback Stores wishes them well for their final studies!
