RUSSELL SHIELDS, Founder & Chair of The Community Grocer
Russell is the Founder and Chair of The Community Grocer, a social enterprise that runs weekly affordable fresh food markets to support healthy connected communities. With a longstanding commitment to food justice and sustainability, Russell was part of the team that developed SecondBite from a good idea to a multimillion-dollar national leader in fresh food rescue, and also established and managed the Food Justice Truck social enterprise, a mobile fresh food market for people seeking asylum in Victoria run by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
A food system specialist with a strong community engagement and project management background and a focus on innovative enterprise development, Russell was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study `International models of food rescue and community food initiatives that address food security for vulnerable populations’, and is a founding member of the City of Melbourne Food Alliance and StreetSmart Grants Committee.
He has a slight obsession with lemons and chillies. Luckily his Greek neighbour has the best lemon tree in Melbourne, which he occasionally plunders.