Probably the most important one, what is currently your favorite food? And then maybe of interest to people, but less important in my opinion, is how did you end up here today? What's your background? What's your kind of life story up to this point?

The first question is really tricky.

I love a lot of foods, but I would probably have to say a berry of some kind, a blueberry or a raspberry or something like that.

I love the fresh, sweet summer kind of notion about berries as well, and all of those memories and smells and tastes that come with it.

And secondly, with regards to my background, I have always been so interested in food, but when I was growing up, I suppose I didn't really know a lot about cooking or a lot about nutrition.

I sort of had to learn as I went along and did a lot of reading cookbooks, self, self-taught cooking and learning from others.

But I studied a Bachelor of Health Science with a major in nutrition, and I graduated in 2006, and I got increasingly passionate about that degree and about food and nutrition as I went along my degree.

Do you wanna maybe start with that one?

What would you call out specifically there?

Well, some examples are in France, they mandate that 50% of their school meal ingredients are locally sourced.

And then in other countries like Brazil and Uruguay, they legislate that at least 30% of the public food budgets purchased from family-owned farms, which are closer to where the institutions are located.

And so those two examples for me, I live in a rural area.

There are lots of farmers near where I live, and thinking about how vitally important that would be for their businesses to keep the economy in these rural areas supported.

We know that farmers are finding it really difficult right now in Australia, and so to think that we could shift the, the budgets towards supporting more of these smaller family-owned farms, I think is absolutely fantastic.

But then also thinking about the nutrition standards across 14 European Union coun- 14 countries, uh, had nutrition criteria, and I thought that that was quite amazing to see how many just in the European Union were focusing on better nutrition for people in these institutions.

Stephanie, do we underestimate the importance of food for the groups of people that find themselves in places like hospitals, aged care s- facilities, long day cares?

What would you call out specifically there?

Well, some examples are in France they mandate that 50% of their school meal ingredients are- Locally sourced.

And then in other countries like Brazil and Uruguay, they legislate that at least 30% of the public food budget's purchased from family-owned farms, which are closer to where the institutions are located.

And so those two examples for me, I live in a rural area, there are lots of farmers near where I live, and thinking about how vitally important that would be for their businesses to keep the economy in these rural areas supported.

We know that farmers are finding it really difficult right now in Australia, and so to think that we could shift the, the budgets towards supporting more of these smaller family-owned farms, I think is absolutely fantastic.

But then also thinking about the nutrition standards.

Across 14 European Union coun- 14 countries, uh, had nutrition criteria, and I thought that that was quite amazing to see how many just in the European Union were focusing on better nutrition for people in these institutions.

Stephanie, do we underestimate the importance of food for the groups of people that find themselves in places like hospitals, aged care facilities, long daycares?