About YFM.

YFM was founded in Sydney in 2011.

It grew to launch additional chapters in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Wollongong and Western Sydney; run hundreds of events; and attract thousands of passionate volunteers. In late 2022, the YFM team took the difficult decision to close down the organisation. To learn more about past events and initiatives, check out the ‘projects’ tab or explore the blog.

We’re a national volunteer-led organisation that aims to build the skills, knowledge and experience that young people have around food. More than that, we empower them to take those skills, knowledge and experiences out into the world and create the food system that they believe in.

Food can often feel like an epic minefield. With everyone from bloggers, scientists, farmers, celebrity chefs, dietary guidelines, friends and your Instagram feed clambering for a say in what goes on your dinner plate, young people are dealing with more mixed messages than autocorrect fail text exchanges with your mum.

But ultimately, knowing where your food comes from matters. Here’s why:

1. Our farmers are getting older

2. We’re losing food skills, fast

3. We’re wasting huge amounts of the food we grow, and

4. We’re further away from where our food grows than we’ve ever been.

By building a generation of young Australians who can cook, who can read a label, who understand the challenges facing farmers, who know the basics of how food grows and how it reaches our plate, we also build a generation of people who are more connected to our food and land, and better able to support farmers without it costing us the earth.

That’s where we come in.

YFM exists to help fill in the gaps. We provide a place – be that in pubs, in living rooms, on laptop screens – for information and skills to be exchanged and for learning to happen. We don’t believe in telling people what to do, we believe that by young people knowing and sharing more about where our food comes from (how it was grown, who grew it, what can even be done with it), they become armed with the skills, knowledge and experience to build us a sweet food future.

These skills, knowledge and experience, collectively, we like to call ‘food literacy’.

We’re bananas about empowering young Aussies to tackle the food issues affecting our environment, health, society and people.

Food issues – like the impact of climate change on the food system, the loss of cooking skills, and the disconnection between rural farming  and urban folks – are hard nuts to crack, so we’re growing the next generation of food champions into a movement of keen beans who are energised to create the change they want to see.

Our inclusive approach brings together everyone from farmers to eaters at physical and digital tables, in order to connect, collaborate, exchange knowledge and build practical skills for creating real and lasting impact on food issues.

An Australia where all young people are food literate and have access to just, nutritious, ecologically sound and affordable food, and where all aspects of food have a positive relationship with our environment, health, society and people.

Our Approach

Our approach is based on the belief that peer-to-peer learning – yep that’s young people teaching and sharing with other young people - is the most powerful way to create change.

We aim to make complex issues around food accessible, tangible and human. Above all, we create projects which appeal to young people’s sense of play. We’re also not prescriptive – we don’t believe in telling young people what to think or how to think - we simply advocate for the importance of understanding your food and making your choices count.

YFM On the ground

Projects

YFM runs a slate of annual projects which our chapters roll out on the ground . Our projects are outside-the-box, hand-crafted affairs that break down barriers between growers and eaters and build the food smarts of young Australians. Check out our projects page to find out more

Platforms

YFM creates and shares news about cool food stuff. Whether through social media or our website, we are about creating spaces to talk all things food and agriculture and share skills and knowledge with our community.

Participate

YFM is a voice for young people in public discussions about the future of food. From public forums and policy debates, to policy submissions, and community halls, we represent the unique (and complex) perspective of young people in conversations where we've traditionally been left out. We believe that dialogue is a vital piece of the puzzle.

So what is a youth?

Trust us, we get asked this a lot.

YFM projects speak to young adults between the ages of 18-35. We know that moving out of home, and the experience of first cooking for yourself can shape the way you buy and eat food for years to come. We aim to give young people a tool belt of practical skills and knowledge during this time that can set them up for the future.

Why Gen-Y?

It's simple. Young people today are the future farmers, chefs, eaters, shoppers, manufacturers and retailers of tomorrow. We are the people who will inherit the problems we have around food, so who better to fix it than us?

We also know that of any generation alive right now, young adults are the most open to change. A pretty crucial part of the sustainable food puzzle. We’ll put our hands up to try new ways of working, we want to have tough conversations, not close them down.

We’re like the secret ingredient you often forget to use.

We also bring energy, positivity and open-mindedness to big conversations about food and believe these things give us a unique place at the table.