By Emily-Rose Toohey
The Southern Downs region, particularly the Granite Belt, has a reputation for being a hub of great food and Southern Downs Regional Council (SDRC) is looking to help expand this industry further.
At last week’s Council Information Session, four projects were discussed to enhance the region’s economic development, including one titled Seasonal Menu.
The presentation was led by a spokesperson directly involved with the project and said the goal of this undertaking was to connect producers with consumers, showcase regional flavours, and strengthen the local economy and agritourism.
“We have the most amazing food here – a lot of our farmers are really good at what they do but they don’t necessarily know how to connect with restaurants,” the spokesperson said.
“We have these producers and they all feel as though they’re very singular and not as a group.
“One of the things I’d love to be able to have our restaurants serve local produce seasonally.”
Furthermore, this business plan would include running seminars and lessons for producers to help them undertake it.
“This will include showing them what a business plan looks like and how you apply for a grant to help their businesses grow,” the spokesperson said.
“The role of the Seasonal Menu will connect producers and consumers.”
As part of the project’s development, the spokesperson said that a group of producers were selected for a trip to Tasmania for a region familiarisation tour.
“It was being able to take our food producers to a place that was very similar in some ways to our region and see how they do it,” the spokesperson said.
“We picked 10 people to come on the tour who were trying to drive their business and every time we went to a place, we asked them for feedback, which started discussions.
“We had them starting to think about their businesses in a broader sense, not singularly.”
Furthermore, the spokesperson said that within 24 hours of returning from the trip, one of the participants said they were going to change the whole look of their shop and that they learned so much from it.
“I believe it was very good for our region and was extremely successful,” the spokesperson said.
