Website aims to make our hearts content

SOME Tasmanian families are spending up to 40 per cent of their income just to buy healthy food.

Launch of the Heart Foundation Healthy Food Access Tasmania web portal that is an interactive local food access map so you can identify what's available in your neighbourhood picture of co founders, . James Da Costa and Bridget Stewart from the Hobart City Farm

SOME Tasmanian families are spending up to 40 per cent of their income just to buy healthy food.

To counter this, a new web resource designed to help reduce food insecurity has been launched by the Heart Foundation and Primary Health Tasmania.

The Australia-first Healthy Food Access Tasmania site identifies neighbourhoods in need of better access to fruit and vegetables and links growers, businesses and community members.

The site shows that in some areas it costs up to $5000 more a year to buy healthy food.

Heart Foundation chief Graeme Lynch said despite the state’s reputation for some of the best produce in the nation, Tasmanians were still disproportionately affected by chronic disease.

“One part of the solution is to fix our local food systems by enabling local connections and that’s exactly what this new online tool seeks to do,” he said.

James Da Costa, from urban farming social enterprise Hobart City Farm, said the non-profit group was proud to be part of the project.

See healthyfoodaccesstasmania.org.au