‘OzHarvest’ A Vital Link In The Community Food Chain
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August 2, 2011How to Make Your Home Office Greener
August 2, 2011PWF would like to congratulate two social enterprises commended in the NSW Government’s ‘Green Globe Awards’ – OzHarvest and Starfish. You can see all the winners here.
OzHarvest Highly Commended In Waste And Recycling Category
OzHarvest is a charitable organisation that rescues food from restaurants, food outlets and corporate kitchens that would otherwise be thrown away and delivers it free, on the same day, to charities that feed the disadvantaged and homeless.
The economic, social and environmental consequences of saving excess food going to landfill are significant. OzHarvest endeavour to evenly distribute food to 245 charities in Sydney and a further 35 in Newcastle, rescuing approximately 20 tonnes of food from landfill each week.
The organisation estimates it has saved 4,000 metric tons of carbon pollution – the equivalent to taking around 1,000 cars of the road, by saving food from landfill.
The food donations are not only nutritious but it also allows charities to re-direct funds into other essential services.
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To get involved click here.
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Where Does The Food Go?
OzHarvest website explains that it provides:
“food to over 240 charities across Sydney and Wollongong, 46 in Canberra and Queanbeyan, 31 in Newcastle and 11 in Adelaide. These charities provide support to many individuals in need, including:
* children and youth at risk who may have been abused or have nowhere else to go
* single parents with no support
* older men and women who have trouble making ends meet
* those who are homeless
* marginalised indigenous men, women and children
* refugees looking for a better life
* those who are going through drug and alcohol rehabilitation
* women who are escaping domestic violence; and
* families with low incomes who need help to get by.The only common feature across these charities is that they all support those who are vulnerable. We provide food to the larger well known organisations like Mission Australia, the PCYC’s, the Salvation Army and Youth off the Streets.
Equally we provide food to many small agencies dotted around Sydney – the type of charity that doesn’t seek publicity. For example, a small women’s refuge that doesn’t advertise so that its details do not become widely known or a small respite centre for children and teenagers escaping difficult home situations. “
More of this please – we can’t afford to waste scarce resources
3 Comments
I think this is great. Do you know if there is anything similar in Victoria. I have been trying to encourage this idea through talk back radio and personal visits to supermarkets, but have not got anywhere. Supermarkets have given lots of excuses such as once their produce is written off they must throw it away and if they gave it away and someone got sick, they would be liable. I know that some smaller stores such as hot bread shops donate to charities, but it is very difficult with bigger chains. I have also said that rather it go into landfill, I will compost it if they are worried about it poisoning people, but have been told, either someone may eat it anyway and then sue them or they can’t give it to me for any reason once it has been written off. Some Safeway did give waste food for animals after the Black Saturday fires, as long as whoever picked it up signed that they were only using it for animals.
I agree with Bron; it is hard to get support… last year Woolworths apparently had a big drive to recycle their excess produce etc and partnered with the govt on this – there was a big media self congratulation on their website yet in our local community we never heard ‘boo’ from Woolworths trying to link with the community groups to reuse the food. I rang the local manager and he said he was new but in his previous store they did divert the excess to charity but at some point from higher up, he got the word to stop… and there it lay. He said he would get back to me… but didn’t. I really wonder if it is some token effort. So sad.
Back to OZ Harvest; I did hear founder Ronnie Kahn talk on ABC radio about how she started up OzHarvest, and she is passionate about helping to create a model for other communities to recycle food. Perhaps Bron, you should contact OzHarvest directly as they do have a partnership with the big grocery giants. One thing we have discovered in our research to have a foodbank in Stanthorpe is that as an organisation you need to have ‘product liability’ insurance so that you are covered for any of your recipients if they receive suspect goods, and of course, you would need to have your own food safety plan in place to limit any food risks.
Yes Bron, check out http://www.secondbite.org/. You can email Emily – emily@secondbite.org – who organises the volunteers.