3.0 Research Questions The research questions that this project sought to investigate were: 1. Which organisations provide Emergency Food Relief (EFR) in Tasmania? 2. What models of EFR do these organisations use to distribute food relief in Tasmania? 3. What strategies are used by these organisations to: a. Provide emergency food relief in Tasmania b. Impact on any determinants of food insecurity c. Monitor the level of food insecurity in the populations they work with d. Help to prevent food insecurity (e.g. strategies which address the determinants of food security) e. Work in collaboration with others to address the issue? 4. What opportunities are there for the Tasmanian Food Security Council to collaborate with the organisations in order to add value to the work of emergency relief organisations with a particular emphasis on addressing a range of the determinants of food security?
4.0 Methodology The methodology for this project involved semi-structured telephone and face-to-face interviews with providers of EFR in Tasmania. The interview questions can be found in Appendix A at the end of this report. Initial contact with participants was made through TasCOSSâ€&#x;s membership database, publicly available contact details for organisations known to be working with disadvantaged Tasmanians, and by invitation through the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) network of EFR contractors. Following a telephone conversation with staff at the Tasmanian Association of Community Houses (TACH), a written survey was also distributed to TACH members (Appendix B). A number of Community Houses provide food relief and it was considered important to give these organisations a voice on this issue. Due to the limited resources allocated to this project, and the significant number of organisations providing EFR in Tasmania, sending a written survey was considered the most economical way to collect information from the Community Houses. A number of interviewees also provided the author with written reports, collated data and case studies. The research project methodology was approved by the Tasmanian Social Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee [HREC project number: H11461]. Please refer to Appendix C. 9