FRESH food is hard to come by in the small townships outside Melton, 45 kilometres west of Melbourne.
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In places like Diggers Rest, there is little more than a general store where stocking small supplies of fruit and vegetables is not cost-effective.
The townships have limited or no public transport to larger centres nearby, leaving some residents stranded without access to healthy food.
So shire staff, working on ways to improve the situation, came up with the idea of a van to take a greengrocer to the people. They called it a ''fruit and vegetable outreach service'' and it started in Diggers Rest a few months ago, attracting more than 50 customers on one of its weekly visits.
Now the program - one of many initiatives to tackle food security funded by VicHealth and due to be presented at a forum today - is being rolled out to other townships including Toolern Vale, Rockbank and Exford, where the van pulled up yesterday.
Non-profit group Cultivating Community brings the produce, while volunteers set up the trestle tables and man the scales and cash register.
Shire community development manager Tony Ball said: ''We basically just did some brainstorming and thought, let's look back to older times when the milkman and the baker went around.
''We thought, why don't we look at a mobile fruit and vegetable shop that can go to these areas and hopefully attract enough trade to create a small community business?''
Mr Bull said the council was running a pilot of the service in an effort to show that it could be a viable, ongoing business.
VicHealth chief executive Todd Harper said refugees, low income earners, the elderly and frail, disabled people and those with drug and alcohol problems often had limited access to nutritious food.
''Victoria is famous for its abundance of beautiful fresh food, but try eating well if you don't have enough money to pay the bills, or no car to get to the supermarket, or no stove or fridge,'' he said.
''For too many people, fast food is an easier and cheaper option, but one linked to obesity and ill health.''
Other projects to enhance access to healthy food to be discussed at the forum at Flemington Racecourse today include:
- A bilingual cooking class for Sudanese refugees in Footscray to familiarise them with local fruits and vegetables.
- Land rezoning to provide for fresh food outlets in new subdivisions in the Shire of Wodonga.
- A community garden in Robinvale that provides fruit and vegetables on a ''pay what you can afford'' basis, popular with local indigenous people.
- A warehouse to provide fresh food for disadvantaged residents in Dandenong.
http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/foodforall
