OzHarvest Sunshine Coast celebrated five years on the Sunshine Coast with a very generous donation from the Noosa Bridge Club.
Funds raised from the Bridge Club Charity day will allow OzHarvest to deliver 3200 meals to vulnerable community members.
The Sunshine Coast Chapter of OzHarvest started in August 2014 with three volunteers, three participating charities, four local food donors and a catchment from Noosa to Coolum. In five years, there has been significant growth, with operations now spanning from Gympie down the Coast into Caloundra and the Sunshine Coast hinterland. The yellow team of volunteers – now totalling over 80 – has rescued and redistributed over 280,000 kg of surplus food – the equivalent of 720,000 meals.
Chapter Coordinator Michele Lipner said that, “From our very humble beginnings where we collected on average 400kg of donated food a month, we are now collecting about 10,000kg of food a month from over 30 local food suppliers and producers. Because of the generosity of the community and local businesses, we are able to support over 40 charities, schools, churches, residential homes, youth programs and community centres up and down the Coast.”
Michele added that with the success of its food rescue operations, OzHarvest Sunshine Coast is now well placed to focus a significant amount of energy and time on a key component of its mission – education and awareness raising regarding food waste and minimising the impact of food waste on the environment.
“Education and awareness is the first step towards reducing food waste – but the real need is, with our messaging, to help change attitudes and behaviours regarding how we view food and how we can each be part of the solution to reduce food waste,” he said.
Michele said OzHarvest Sunshine Coast will be ramping up its education and advocacy efforts through multiple avenues, including going directly to schools and community groups to speak about food and food waste.
As important and central to OzHarvest’s work in education and advocacy is to “Use food as the medium to engage our community in how we can reduce food waste. We have identified a commercial kitchen where we will be holding cooking classes and demonstrations for community and business groups. Through these cooking experiences, we hope to get the message out there that wasting food wastes everything and that we must each be part of the solution to reducing food waste.”
Included in the menu of activities will be OzHarvest’s flagship program Cooking for a Cause – a corporate team building exercise that allows corporate team members the opportunity to create meals for vulnerable community members with rescued food.Michele said, ‘This is such an exciting time for OzHarvest on the Coast. The Sunshine Coast is a foodie destination – we have some of the best chefs, local produce and restaurants in the country. There is real opportunity to work in partnership to collectively help feed people in our community who are in need and help reduce the impact of food waste on the environment.”
“If you are a chef who would like to volunteer your time, a business that would like to get involved in team building activities, a community group or school that would like to learn more about food and food waste, we would love to hear from you.”
To learn more about OzHarvest Sunshine Coast, contact sunshinecoast.info@ozharvest.org or go onto the OzHarvest website at: www.ozharvest.org.
