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Little Food Festival

Kids + Families
Free
This is a past event
Kids + Families
Free

Dates

9 April 2025 - 10 April 2025
Daily
10am - 4pm

Venue

Main Square

The Little Food Festival is Australia’s first food festival created especially for kids. A free community event, it promotes health, wellbeing and sustainability education, focused on the food system.

During the April 2025 school holidays, kids will roll up their sleeves to plant seedlings, dive into the world of bush food, unleash their creativity with craft, master the art of preparing nutritious meals and in exciting news – this year we’ll also be joined by Bugs Bunny!

For more information visit: https://www.littlefoodfestival.com/

Main Stage

The Main Stage show will be packed with fun and engaging activities to captivate kids with the wonderful world of food education.

AUSLAN Stage Left will be interpreting for both days of the stage program.

Day One

MC – The Fruit Nerd, Thanh Truong

10:15am–10:30am: Acknowledgement of Country
10:30am–11am: Official opening with special guests
11:15am–11:45am: From orchard to the fruit bowl, with the Fruit Nerd and Jazz apples
12pm–12:30pm: The Great Unwaste with MasterChef star, Mandy Hall
12:45pm–1pm: Bush foods session with Nornie Bero
1:40pm–2:10pm: George the Farmer, presented by Rabobank Australia
2:20pm–2:45pm: Nutrition Q&A with fan favourite Melbourne Victory players, presented by AIA Australia
3pm–3:30pm: It starts with a seed, with the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation
4pm: Kick back with a family film, Shaun the Sheep

Day Two

MC – Costa, The Garden Gnome

10am–10:30am: Welcome to Country with the Djirri Djirri dancers
10:30am–11am: What is a Clown Salad?! Featuring Chef Verena from Free to Feed and Carisma Potatoes
11:15am–11:30am: African music and dance with the United African Farm
11:45am–12:05pm: The Mushroom Odyssey with Bellarine Fungi
12:20pm–12:50pm: Cooking demonstration with OzHarvest’s FEAST program, featuring students from Doveton College
1pm–1:35pm: George the Farmer, presented by Rabobank Australia
1:50pm–2:20pm: It starts with a seed, with the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation
2:35pm–3pm: The magic of bees and pollination with Rooftop Bees
3:20pm–3:50pm: Growin’ it local with Costa and James from Farm My School
4pm: Kick back with a family film – Paddington

Activities and Workshops

The festival is made up of activities and workshops that celebrate each stage of the food system. At the Little Food Festival, kids can roll up their sleeves to plant seedlings, dive into the world of bush food, unleash their creativity in craft activities, master the art of preparing nutritious meals and more!

Check out the confirmed activities and workshops below that will be available at the festival. More amazing activations over the coming weeks will be added.

Grow

  • Learn all about pollination and make your own seed ball to take home with Rooftop Bees.
  • Plant a lettuce, silverbeet or edible viola seedling with Bunnings.
  • Play ‘What’s in the box’ with the United African Farm.
Move

  • Ready, set, Farm Dash! The race is on between a supermarket tomato and locally grown tomato. Who’s the farmer? You! Explore how farmers plant tomatoes from seed, care for them and get them to the market. You’ll get to see first hand the difference between two types of farming, then you can decide which you prefer!
  • Join OzHarvest on their food rescue journey! Experience the day in the life of an OzHarvest Food Rescue Driver.
Buy

  • Visit the mini grocer with A Better Choice! and Queen’s Harvest. Grab your shopping basket & special tokens and have fun playing the shopping game. You’ll be able to change your tokens for some yummy fruit and/or veg to taste.
  • Get crafty at our Little Shopping List workshop! The very talented Angharad Neal-Williams will help kids create their own list of nutritious, fruit, veg, protein and carbohydrates to take on their next shopping trip.
  • Play the Ugly Food game with Monash University.
Cook

  • Make your own pickles to take home! Choose your own herbs and vegetables and learn the science behind the pickling process. Pickling is a great way to reduce food waste in our household which helps create a more sustainable planet.
  • Make mozzarella magic! Create your own bocconcini skewer using market-fresh cherry tomatoes and fragrant basil. It’s Italy’s classic flavour sensation, thanks to Georgio’s Artisan Cheese.
  • Learn about how potatoes are grown and why they’re such a wonderful vegetable to use in your cooking. Not only are they full of nutritional value, they’re super yummy! At the Little Food Festival, you can make (and eat!) your very own clown potato salad with Chef Verena from Free to Feed.
Eat

  • Who loves a delicious, juicy JAZZ™ apple? These yummy apples are 100% handpicked right from the earth and packed with good stuff that helps you run, jump, and play all day long. Did you know JAZZ™ apples have Vitamin C to help you fight off sniffles, and fibre to keep your tummy happy and healthy? They also have other cool vitamins and things called antioxidants that help keep your body strong. Plus, they’re super refreshing and taste like a sweet-tangy hug for your tastebuds! Grab a JAZZ™ apple at the Little Food Festival for a healthy, tasty snack that’s as awesome as you are!
  • Put on your lab coat and look under the microscope to see the microscopic structure of food. You’ll also learn how the CSIRO helps vegetable growers convert produce waste into healthy edible snacks.
  • Play the Table Talk game! This super fun card game has been developed but he Kitchen Garden Foundation together with Monash University to encourage conversations around food, and what we love the most about being engaged in our food system.
  • Discover the gut-brain axis and learn about the role of food in brain health with Monash University – GIN Discovery Program. Fun, hands-on activities will engage kids in how nutrition impacts how we think, feel and grow.
Recycle

  • Calling all young explorers! Join CERES school of nature & climate for a fun-filled journey that will dig deep into the world of healthy soil, food waste, and our tiny, but mighty, friends—the worms!
  • Make your own mini mushroom grow kit to take home! You’ll have mushrooms sprouting in 2 weeks – how fun! Visit the Bellarine Fungi marquee to learn about the role fungi play in decomposing matter in our environment, building healthy soils, and the ways that fungi can deal with all sorts of environmental problems like plastic pollution and oil spills.
  • Everyone’s favourite smoothie bikes are back! Use reduced bananas from OzHarvest to blend your very own smoothie to drink. Yum!

Supporting Areas

Quiet Zones
The Little Food Library presented by Melbourne Libraries. Sit down to read a book and listen in to a story time reading from Melbourne Libraries wonderful children’s librarians

AIA Australia Colouring Zone
Complete some creative colouring with AIA’s large colouring cubes

Reflection Zone
What action will you take after your fun day at the Little Food Festival? Visit the reflection zone to test your knowledge of food systems with Monash University

Food Trucks
Healthy, social enterprise food trucks, to be announced soon.

NGV Kids: My Favourite Food
Are you hungry to draw? Drop by The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia and draw your favourite food with us.

Green My Plate

Thanks to the closed loop system from Green My Plate, we are proud to say the upcoming Little Food Festival will be a low waste event. All food vendors will be serving up their delicious food on the reusable Green My Plate plates and bowls which you then simply place into the pink bins within the venue. The team from Green My Plate will be continuously collecting the reusable plates and co to then wash and recirculate, leaving a cleaner footprint, and diverting single-use food packaging from landfill.

The process is simple. Simply head to your choice of food vendor, order up, then place your reusable plate in the pink bin.

The plates will be reused over and over at events across Victoria. We encourage and thank everyone for doing their part and assisting us with making dishes, not waste.

Learn More

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