The Maggie Beer Foundation
If you’re into building systemic capability rather than providing band-aid solutions, you need to know about the Maggie Beer Foundation, an organisation tackling one of our community’s most fundamental challenges: ensuring older Australians – whether living at home or in an aged care home – have access to nutritious, flavoursome food that brings joy to every meal.
Founded in 2014 by Maggie Beer AO, the Foundation is a system of the future because rather than simply criticising from the sidelines or lobbying for change, they are building solutions. The Foundation is also a great example of the power of philanthropic partnerships, which have given it capacity to innovate and test new approaches.
In one of its programs, the Foundation brings know-how, passion, and critical competencies to aged care teams themselves. In a sector already struggling with reform pressures, workforce shortages and funding challenges, the Foundation works directly with cooks, chefs, and providers to uplift food quality in ways that create enduring change. Their approach recognises that systemic transformation requires building internal capability within the system itself, not creating dependency on external suppliers or waiting for Government to solve it.
What makes their work strategically sophisticated is the deliberate multi-layered approach. The intensive 12-month Trainer Mentor Program provides hands-on coaching and menu appraisals. Virtual Hubs deliver accessible training at scale. Sixteen online learning modules cover everything from dementia care to texture-modified diets. A Professional Community forum connects over 4000+ alumni to share recipes and maintain momentum. Independent evaluation by Health Consult Australia tracks every outcome, ensuring accountability whilst building the evidence base for sector-wide transformation.
Since 2014, the Foundation’s Masterclasses, the 2024 ABC series “Maggie Beer’s Big Mission” and one to one work with aged care organisations supported by donations, have demonstrated proof of concept: protein per serving doubled, with two-thirds of residents increasing their protein intake, showing what’s possible when you build capacity systematically.
Their Strategic Plan (available here) charts an ambitious path: making the case for modern aged care culinary qualifications, expanded skills development, their HomePlate Project to prevent malnutrition among older people living at home and calling out research to drive policy and culture change – all funded through a diverse model including Maggie Beer’s personal investment, government grants, and philanthropy.
This is strategic leadership done properly: Show don’t tell, build capability now (don’t wait for Government), and create change that endures. When you invest in building capability at every level of a system, you create transformation that spreads organically rather than being imposed from above.
Website: maggiebeerfoundation.org.au
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