Zero Hunger

La Trobe has implemented a comprehensive program to address student hunger and food insecurity. The university offers free food relief services across all campuses, including student pantries and food banks operated by the La Trobe Student Union (LTSU) and La Trobe Student Association (LTSA). These services provide students with access to essential food and household items. For students experiencing food insecurity, La Trobe also provides access to financial counselling services to assist in connecting with appropriate food relief resources.

La Trobe University actively promotes sustainable food choices across all its campuses, including vegetarian and vegan options. Read more.

La Trobe University supports access to healthy and affordable food through on-campus cafés, dining venues, takeaway outlets and food retailers. These offer a range of choices, including fresh salads, vegetarian and vegan meals, soups, wraps, smoothies and gluten-free options.

At the Melbourne (Bundoora) Campus, the food and retail directory identifies available meal options, trading hours and student discounts. Participating outlets offer affordable meal deals, student specials and other value options alongside their regular menus.

Regional campus food services also provide dietary choices. For example, La Moka Café at Albury-Wodonga offers a range of food and catering options accommodating different dietary requirements.

La Trobe further supports access to affordable fresh food through community and student initiatives. The Kingsbury Drive Community Market, held every Sunday at the Bundoora Campus, provides an additional opportunity to purchase fresh produce.

The Living at La Trobe team also facilitates fresh food delivery for students. At the Bundoora Campus, its Fresh Food Corner enables student residents to collect free fresh fruit, vegetables and long-life food items, helping reduce food costs and improve access to nutritious food.

La Trobe University works with farmers, food producers and industry partners to share knowledge and develop practical technologies that support sustainable agriculture and aquatic food production. Through collaborative research, on-farm trials, industry events and publicly available resources, the University helps producers explore approaches to managing natural resources, improving production and responding to environmental challenges.

La Trobe provides free access to sustainable farming knowledge through publicly available resources and industry events, alongside collaborative research partnerships and commercially available agricultural technologies.

1. Providing farmers with smart irrigation technology

La Trobe partnered with Aglantis to develop smart irrigation technology that farmers control remotely through a cloud-based interface. Environmental sensors help farmers direct water where it is needed and monitor irrigation across their properties. Commercially launched in December 2024 and documented in La Trobe’s January 2025 case study, the system supports sustainable agricultural practices through more efficient water use and reduced risks of overwatering and nutrient runoff.

2. Helping farmers measure and manage natural assets

La Trobe researchers developed a standardised approach to help farmers measure and manage soil, water and biodiversity alongside farm business performance. Working with 50 Australian farms, the project combined environmental and farm management data into natural capital accounts, helping farmers understand whether their management practices are building, maintaining or depleting the natural assets that support agricultural production.

La Trobe provides free public access to practical fact sheets, a natural capital accounting methods blueprint, example farm accounts and information about its digital platform. These resources give farmers and food producers access to knowledge and tools for assessing environmental performance, improving land management and incorporating sustainability into farm business decisions.

3. Giving winegrowers access to smoke-risk information

La Trobe’s Wine Industry Smoke Detectors provide vineyard managers with real-time smoke-taint risk ratings through a mobile app and website. In February 2025, the University reported that monitors were being used to track smoke impacts in the Grampians. The technology helps winegrowers make informed decisions about grape use and potential treatments, reducing the risk of unnecessarily discarding usable harvests.

4. Helping grain growers manage invasive weeds

La Trobe researchers are working with Australian grain growers and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) to investigate sustainable approaches to managing Gazania, an invasive weed threatening agricultural production. Research led by Dr Ali Bajwa has involved grower consultation, field surveys and trials at Loxton and Arno Bay in South Australia.

In 2025, research findings and practical weed-management guidance were shared through publicly accessible industry publications, including advice on early intervention, monitoring and preventing weed spread. These resources provide farmers with knowledge to support crop protection and more effective weed management, while ongoing research investigates potential future control treatments.

5. Supporting aquaculture and aquatic food production

La Trobe’s abalone research connects university expertise with Victorian seafood producers to investigate disease-management approaches for aquaculture. Collaborations with Southern Ocean Mariculture, Yumbah Aquaculture and Jade Tiger Abalone have involved on-farm research trials, providing participating producers with opportunities to gain practical experience of emerging disease-management approaches. In July 2025, La Trobe researchers presented research into immune-priming treatments and delivery through feed and immersion, aimed at improving disease resistance in farmed abalone. This work seeks to support more resilient aquatic food production by reducing disease-related stock losses.

6. Sharing practical knowledge on sustainable farming technologies

On 1 July 2025, La Trobe hosted Smart Farming – Technology Transforming Agriculture, a free public event designed for growers, agribusiness professionals and industry representatives. Researchers and industry experts shared practical applications of biotechnology, robotics, automated pollination, artificial intelligence and data-driven farming technologies to support agricultural productivity, resource efficiency and sustainable food production.

La Trobe also made the full event recording and presentation summaries freely available online, providing ongoing public access to knowledge and emerging technologies that can help farmers and producers adopt more sustainable farming practices.

At La Trobe, we are committed to improving the employee experience, to building a culture of care for our people to ensure no one is left behind and to creating a great place to work. Our staff and students have free access to kitchens with tea and coffee-making facilities and microwave for heating food. La Trobe provides free food to staff during major events like end of year celebrations or welcoming our new students.

Staff Wellbeing Connect can  refer staff to food relief services and financial counselling when life brings unexpected challenges. Eligible staff may be able to cash out excess leave under Clause 43.7 of La Trobe’s Enterprise Agreement, while staff may also elect to change their superannuation contribution from 17% to 12%, to increase their take-home pay.

La Trobe also supports broader access to affordable and culturally meaningful food across staff, student and the community. The Kingsbury Drive Community Market, located at the Bundoora Campus, offers affordable fresh food for the community to purchase. The Nangak Tamboree Wildlife Sanctuary shares information about Indigenous plants that can be used as food, with many of these plants also available for purchase from the Sanctuary.