Since 2018 we have worked with Monash University hosting students that are studying Nutrition and Dietetics for their Community Nutrition Placement. This week we welcomed Calista, Raquel, Sara and Jessica, who will be completing their placement with us for ten weeks until 22 November.

One of our key metrics is to increase fresh fruit and vegetable volume by 2.5% every year. The students project will support this goal by updating existing training guides, reports and resources. This will help streamline the process for store managers and their teams.

As always, our nutrition team will accompany the students during their remote travel to stores. This will provide them with an insight into how our stores operate as well as how we manage, promote and display fruit and vegetables to ensure our customers have access to affordable and quality fresh produce.

Welcome to Outback Stores,  Calista, Jessica, Raquel and Sara!

Outback Stores’ nutrition team attended the National Preventive Health Conference in Darwin (30 April – 2 May 2024), alongside Mimili Maku Store’s chairperson Rex Tjami. The conference was hosted by the Public Health Association of Australia and brought together people from around the country to talk about preventive health, with the theme being ‘Building prevention success stories’.

Rex Tjami and Anna Murison (Outback Stores’ Health and Nutrition Manager) were invited to present the Mimili Maku sugar reduction policy and to tell the story of how the community removed all full-sugar soft drinks from sale.

It became clear that Rex and the store directors in Mimili are true trailblazers, implementing the boldest strategy of its kind in a remote community today. This success story also demonstrates how partnering with Outback Stores can enable strong store governance and empower directors to make bold decisions to reduce health problems in remote communities.

The nutrition team and Rex received overwhelming positive feedback, with many people expressing how much they valued having a community voice present to share their story. The nutrition team looks forward to showcasing other good news health stories highlighting the collaboration between Outback Stores and remote store directors.

Hear Rex Tjami speak about Mimili’s sugar-reduction strategies on YouTube.

Outback Stores is hosting four Nutrition and Dietetic students from Monash University who have been working on a project for the past 8 weeks to develop key potential recommendations to reduce the consumption of table sugar in remote communities.

Each year Outback Stores’ nutrition policy contributes to a reduction in the sale of sugary drinks in communities, as well as increased sales of fresh fruit and vegetables. However table sugar remains one of the key contributors to sugar consumption in remote communities.

Ciara, Jasmine, Maryam and Adelaide started their research scoping the available literature and from there gathered information by conducting face to face interviews in community and investigating company sales data.

They visited remote communities to meet community members, discuss table sugar usage and run nutrition education sessions with the local schools.

They identified that the most common usage of table sugar in communities is with tea, coffee and cereal, and are working on suggested alternatives as part of their project.

The students from Monash University hope that the recommendations from their project may reduce sugar intake in remote communities, which is the primary cause of type 2 diabetes.

1 in 10 adults worldwide have diabetes. Over 90% have type 2 diabetes. Close to half are not yet diagnosed.

– WorldDiabetesDay.org

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.

The feedback we received in Nauiyu was very positive.

– Sarah Sealy