Critics question taxpayer millions for Maggie Beer Foundation to improve food in aged care

On the face of it, Maggie Beer’s campaign to improve food in aged care is the kind of story Australians love: an 80-year-old culinary icon championing a better deal for vulnerable older Australians.

Through her ABC TV show, Maggie Beer’s Big Mission, Beer has become the public face of a push to elevate meals in a sector long criticised for neglect, underfunding and malnutrition.

Behind the hearty broths and natural food Beer promotes, though, is a politically nimble foundation that has so far received $7.5 million in federal funding – $5 million of it in a “closed non-competitive” tender because it was an election commitment by Labor.

It is now manoeuvring for far more amid complaints from some in the sector that it cannot deliver change at the scale required. Federal budget submissions and emails obtained from the federal Health Department under freedom of information reveal the foundation wants an additional $15.3 million over the next three years.

Under the plan, the foundation would extend its core free Trainer Mentor Program that pairs aged care home kitchen teams with a qualified chef to enhance food and the dining experience for residents. It would also expand its online training modules and the other projects it runs to improve food in aged care homes.

As the foundation pushes for more public money, though, critics say there is scant evidence its work is improving food standards at scale across Australia’s aged care homes, despite the prominence its work is given by the government among initiatives to improve aged care food.

While the foundation points to strong demand – 96 homes applied for just 15 available positions in its last intake – measurable outcomes, such as reduced malnutrition rates, remain elusive.

An independent evaluation is under way, but the final report is not due until November 2026. The foundation’s spokeswoman says a draft of the most recent evaluation “does seem to support” benefits like “reductions in unplanned weight loss”. She declined to provide the document.

The Trainer Mentor Program has been questioned by some for its scalability and value for money in a sector with enormous systemic problems. The foundation’s current funding will reach 120 of the nation’s 2700 aged care homes by next year, while the new $15 million funding would help reach 350 in total by 2029.

A 2022 letter from the foundation to Health and Ageing Minister Mark Butler pledged that an online learning program for cooks and chefs it offered would reach “way over 2000 homes”, without nominating a timeframe for the goal. Questioned about this, the foundation was unable to say how many homes its online learning had now reached. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing says the programs have reached around 600 homes since 2022.

Food in aged care was a key issue at the royal commission into aged care, which released its damning findings in 2021 – among them on the poor quality food served in homes.

Jakob Neeland, who runs aged care news site HelloCare, questions whether organisations like Beer’s are capable of driving the systemic change the royal commission said was needed.

“Our sector is sick and tired of platitudes. We need genuine, meaningful systemic change across the board,” says Neeland.

“Funding the Maggie Beer Foundation just seems like a PR exercise for the government because they get to be seen to be doing the right thing – which is all the federal government ever does in aged care. But it’s a facade, the foundation’s programs create the perception of the government doing the right thing while not delivering real change.”

The foundation enjoys strong support from MPs. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has appeared alongside Beer to publicly promote the program, while Labor MPs praise it regularly in parliament. The most recent was Bendigo’s Lisa Chesters, who described it as “an amazing success”, while the federal Health Department produces promotional videos that end with joint government and Maggie Beer Foundation logos.

Neeland says there is cynicism about the foundation’s work in the aged care sector, and the government’s promotion of it, “because they’re not showing evidence that convinces people the programs are effective”.

The foundation counters with testimonials from chefs like Brad Forbes, a food services manager at an aged care home in western Victoria. He participated in the foundation’s Trainer Mentor Program which embeds chefs in aged care kitchens for 16 days over 12 months.

He credits the program with giving his team the skills to increase protein intake and improve nutrition at all meals, including morning and afternoon teas. “I’d never worked in aged care before – I’ve just worked in restaurants,” Forbes says. “Here, I have to provide restaurant-quality meals but with the nutrition required as well.”

Inadequate food budgets and chronic understaffing in aged care home kitchens remain challenges – even with increases by both the Morrison and Albanese governments to daily food funding from $6 per resident to more than $16.

The foundation says its model demonstrates that nutritious, fresh meals can be prepared within the sector’s average daily spend of roughly $15 a resident. “It can be done – and we are doing it,” the foundation’s spokeswoman says, pointing to savings that can be made on expensive nutritional supplements when residents enjoy their food.

The foundation also advocates for accredited TAFE qualifications for aged care chefs.

“These specialist, accredited qualifications and content are not yet invented, let alone available. In the meantime, our training is so important,” a foundation spokeswoman says.

Maggie Beer initially agreed to be interviewed for this report but later deferred to her organisation, saying it was more appropriate for it to answer any questions.

Lou Pascuzzi is chief executive of TLC Healthcare, which runs a dozen aged care homes in Victoria. He describes the foundation’s existing funding as “an irresponsible waste of money” and has never considered taking up its training.

“Aged care providers have to fight for every dollar and make it count – we are meticulously scrutinised. Meanwhile, services like these are gifted opportunities with no real governance and squander them with no accountability or consequence,” Pascuzzi says.

The foundation’s chief executive is Jane Mussared, who in 2024 left a senior role in the office of the aged care minister just four months before launching a funding push.

Emails released under FOI show Mussared, a ministerial adviser to Butler from September 2022 until April 2024, maintains frequent contact with former ministerial colleagues while pushing for millions of dollars in further funding.

In a November 2024 email to the minister’s chief of staff, she explicitly frames the foundation’s funding request as including a political opportunity: “We’d love to be part of an announcement about refunding it ahead of the [2025] election.”

Asked if this was appropriate, a foundation spokeswoman says: “Yes. We made a pitch to both sides for funding.”

The spokeswoman says Mussared’s employment history is in “full public view” and her communications show “respectful, normal interactions”.

“The Maggie Beer Foundation does what every non-government organisation with a limited funding runway does – put arguments to the minister of the day, and [the] opposition and other MPs, to seek funding beyond [the] current allocation,” the spokeswoman says.

Aged care dietitian Louise Murray says she’s concerned that funding programs like the Maggie Beer Foundation is too often just Canberra “ticking the box” to show aged care food standards are being addressed.

Murray says money would be better spent establishing TAFE training programs so facilities can confidently hire chefs.

High turnover of staff in aged care kitchens means completing the Maggie Beer Foundation’s online training modules “does not improve food quality, dining experience or nutrition-related health outcomes”, she says.

A spokesman for Aged Care Minister Sam Rae says the initiative has reached hundreds of homes and is subject to “a range of assurance mechanisms” including reporting on its progress to the government.

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