Coffs Coast Local Food Futures Part A_Final Report - Coffs Harbour ...

Monitoring and Evaluation
Please see attached evaluation report in tabular form, which documents the progress made
towards achieving the immediate, intermediate and ultimate outcomes, as measured against
the performance indicators. The assessment of the BCGA and its principal project partners
(Bellingen EYE) is that significant progress has made been towards all three levels of
outcomes according to the outcomes hierarchy.
YouTube - Bellingen Public Permablitz, Boambee Permablitz
Photos – attached
Unanticipated outcomes / multiplier effects
The Coffs Coast Advocate Rural Weekly column continues to reach a wide audience and raise
awareness of the project activities as well as to wider issues of sustainability and resilience
The local food film competition organised as part of the second Coffs Coast Local Food Film
Festival attracted six high quality entries, with the winner being a short film about the recovery
of bush tucker knowledge by a landowner in the Nambucca valley; this competition continues
into the third Local Food Film festival due for October 2012
The combination of the permablitzes with the green grants made available to schools and
community groups by Coffs Harbour City Council has enabled the project to reach a much
wider audience than might otherwise have been the case
Embedding Sustainability
This Project needs to be contextualised amongst a number of other initiatives that have taken place
concurrently in Bellingen over the past four-five years. Since the formation of the Bellingen Local
Food Network in 2007, which was a significant factor leading to the formation of the Coffs Harbour
Local Food Alliance and hence to this Project, these initiatives have included:
Transition Bellingen
Edible Streetscapes Project (part-funded through this grant)
Bello Food Box
Belllingen Seed Savers
North Bank Community Garden
Dorrigo Green Lifestyle Group
Bellingen Permaculture Collective – Food Swaps
Bellingen Free Market
The drive for sustainability in Bellingen has inspired similar initiatives further afield, such as the
Nambucca Valley Local Food Network. As mentioned earlier, members of this Network have played a
leading role in the continued realisation of the Coffs Coast Local Food Film Festival. All these
initiatives feed off each other, and support each other.
The establishment of the High School garden, and the establishment of permaculture gardens in
several primary schools and community organisations via the permablitz program, has played a
leading role in the embedding of sustainability in two principal ways:
It has shown how ideals can be put into action in concrete projects, and
It has created (together with the Edible Streetscapes program) visible demonstrations of
sustainable living.