This Information Hub is a space to learn more about household food insecurity in Australia. Through bringing together research, evidence and resources from multiple sectors and providing information on training, this hub may help to consolidate information and grow readers' understanding of food insecurity.

What is Food Security?

When all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to food, which is sufficient in quantity and quality, safe and nutritious to meet dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle. - FAO

What is Food Insecurity?

Is the limited or uncertain physical, social and economic access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food in a socially acceptable and dignified way.

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Food Insecurity in Australia

Household food insecurity is a major public health concern in Australia, with an estimated 4-13% of Australians living in a household that is food insecure.

Accessing food that is nutritious and culturally appropriate  in socially acceptable ways is a basic need of all people. When a person’s ability to acquire adequate food becomes limited or uncertain, it can have negative impacts on their physical, social, emotional and mental health.

Food insecurity is a complex, expansive issue that stems from a range of factors that impact on food availability and access challenges at individual, household, community, and policy levels. The food insecurity experience can be across the lifespan,  acute, transitory or  chronic in nature and range in severity from worry about not being able to secure food to going the whole day without eating.