Fiona and Julie are back with Season 3 of Local Environmental Heroes. This series is all about food. In this opening episode, Fiona and Julie discuss all of the amazing guests they have interviewed for this series

Lucy is a Canberra based food writer and qualified chef with a passion for food sovereignty and sustainability. SHe is currently finishing her first book which documents her year of internships all over Australia in the food industry.Julie and Fiona have a fascinating chat with Lucy about food sovereignty and learn about how eating seasonally is connected with knowing the growers and improving people’s cooking skills.

Philippa is the Garden Specialist with the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program at Majura Primary School. She is a trained horticulturist and supports students to grow, eat and enjoy fresh food.Fiona and Julie recorded this episode on site and were lucky enough to be taken on a tour of the garden and meet the chickens! This conversation was an amazing opportunity to hear (and see) firsthand how the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program supports young people to grow, value and enjoy fresh food (and to create their own compost).

Andy De Groot is a chef and the founder of Queer Food, a sustainable catering company and food retailer run by Trans* and Queer* People. Andy has an incredibly strong belief in the power of community inclusion and he works to celebrate and honour queer histories and stories through food. Andy chats to Fiona and Julie about the power of using food to tell stories and foster community connection. He generously shares his insights on how he balances a commitment to sustainability with a need to regenerate himself. “I think that even if people reach out to one local producer and change one thing that they're buying with, it's like getting bulk milk from somewhere or going and getting your fresh produce box from a local supplier. This can add up to make a big difference in the long run.”

Amy Blaine is a co-founder and volunteer for the Ainslie Community Pantry. She’s passionate about meeting the needs of the local community through building social networks that share and distribute food, seeing food as an integral part of our social fabric.In this episode, Fiona and Julie are blown away by Amy’s endless enthusiasm for the work she does. Listen to Amy talk about increased demand for the services of the street pantries and the incredible volunteers who are working with her to deliver a service that really shows how to build a community and care for each other.

Aaron is the owner operator of Dreamtime Connections a business he has built to share Indigenous Culture and native foods with the community especially schools. Aaron’s vision is for every school to have a bush tucker garden. Fiona and Julie chat to Aaron about the role of native plants within the local foodscape, and here all about his incredible education initiative in local school connecting students with native foods.

Josie’s primary role is co-CEO & co-founder of Food2Soil, an innovative circular economy business that makes biologically alive fertiliser from fermented commercial food and coffee waste, transforming waste destined for landfill into soil gold. Fiona chats to Josie about her journey as a dietician, her passion to reduce waste and how her life experiences have contributed to the formation of her business. They also talk soil health -how crucial nourishing soil is to producing healthy plants, and healthy people.

Julie and Fiona managed to sneak in a quick visit to Sam’s farm for this recording. This meant they met the magical fig tree which you will hear Sam speak about so fondly in this episode.