‘Bringing joy back’: Indigenous Futures Foundation gets funding boost to deliver more meals in northern NSW

The founder of an Indigenous food program dishing out meals across the Northern Rivers says he’s keeping a promise to his grandfather to keep “feeding our people - not just with food, but with hope”.

Indigenous Futures Foundation’s Cook it Up program for beginners at Coraki was a hit.

Bringing food to the table during a cost of living crisis can be challenging, so when you can serve it up with some hope nothing tastes better.

Indigenous Futures Foundation (IFF) chief executive officer Levi Tamou said that is what his organisation has been up to this month. IFF has delivered 5000 meals in Ballina, Grafton and Lismore as the Northern Rivers slowly recovers from the 2022 floods.

“Due to the cost of living crisis, it’s cheaper to buy hot chips and a loaf of bread to fill the tummies,” Mr Tamou said.

“Or someone – generally mum – goes without, so what we’re really doing is bringing in some hope and joy to family dinner tables.”

IFF CEO Levi Tamou, at Cook it Up in Coraki. The program teaches young people how to cook nutritious meals for their families at home.

IFF is a First Nations food sovereignty program with a mission to end food crises in Indigenous communities.

The charity provides emergency food relief and establishes remote food hubs, but also runs cooking classes and educational programs, including on nutrition.

The Foundation for Rural Regional Renewal (FRRR) has now given IFF close to $25,000 to buy a refrigerated truck.

Meal deliveries have been expanded to Casino, Kingscliff and Tweed Heads, as well as Ballina, Grafton and Lismore.

The IFF cooking classes were a big success.

IFF was started by Mr Tamou, a Kuku Yalanji man, seven years ago after his grandfather asked him to dedicate his life to “feeding our people- not just with food, but with hope”.

“My grandfather would say that we’re a first-world country, but in so many of our regional and remote First Nation communities we have third world problems,” Mr Tamou said.

Coraki residents take part in a Cook it Up program this month.

He said an experience at a Cook it Up for beginners program at Coraki this month highlighted a lack of basic cooking knowledge in many communities.

“A young fella told me ‘I never made chicken from scratch’, meaning they’d never cooked chicken from scratch,” Mr Tamou said.

The cooking program for young people focuses on knife and other basic cooking skills, as well as nutrition, to help young people cook easy meals for their families.

“We’re not just delivering food or workshops, we’re actually fundamentally in the business of bringing in a little bit of hope,” Mr Tamou said.

“There’s not a lot of joy at the dinner table for so many of our clients that we deliver meals to at scale.”

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