Organics Infrastructure Stream 3 Food Donation grant project summaries

In the 2018 round the Environmental Trust approved 6 grants, totalling $440,470.

* June 2019, Parkes Uniting Church Welcome Congregation declined the offer of funding.

Agape Outreach Inc.

Soul Foods – $34,505

This project will provide a new cold room, gas cooker and a refrigerated truck to expand the Soul Foods project and its work to support the marginalised in the community by rescuing nearly 100 tonnes of food waste a year for redistribution. The rescued food comes from 10 local small businesses, including farms, ALDI, SecondBite and Oz Harvest. Agape Outreach Inc. is one of the area’s largest food drop-off centres, benefitting nearly 200 homeless people each week, providing school lunches for Indigenous children at a local school and food hampers to referred clients. Any leftover food is used for cooking classes.

Bucketts Way Neighbourhood Group Inc.

Community Kitchen Trailer – $32,129

Connecting and sustaining the community one meal at a time. The Community Kitchen Trailer project will establish a mobile community kitchen to provide hot meals, community pantry and a breakfast club program. This project aims to utilise donated produce from local businesses from a small NSW rural town that would otherwise end up in landfill. The key objective is reducing local food wastage by re-purposing and providing healthy nutritious meals and promoting healthy eating, wellbeing and connection.

Foodbank NSW & ACT Limited

Foodbank NSW and ACT mezzanine - more space for more food – $278,106

The construction of a 500 square metre mezzanine in the Foodbank NSW and ACT Distribution Centre at Glendenning will provide additional space for the processing and storage of edible food waste rescued from landfill. The mezzanine will enable Foodbank NSW and ACT  to run concurrent activities so it will be able to accept more rescued food: re-work rescued food more promptly and in higher volumes, resulting in fresher food in higher volumes for charities to distribute to people who need food relief.

Parkes Shire Food Services Inc.

Cold storage for Parkes Meals on Wheels – $71,280

Parkes Shire Food Services Inc. is a not for profit Meals on Wheels service that delivers both hot and frozen meals to the Parkes Shire. It covers a radius of 150 kilometres and serves a shire population of more than 15,000 people. The funding for a new fridge freezer and refrigerated van will expand meal deliveries to outlying drought-affected areas in the community. in partnership with Parkes Coles and SecondBite, the van will support the pickup of bread, fruit and vegetables to make them available to the community at no charge.

Parkes Uniting Church Welcome Congregation

Monthly Monday Meals – $12,500

The Welcome Congregation of the Uniting Church in Parkes currently provides a free meal on the first Monday of each month to people and families in need in the town of Parkes. There is a need for this service and a desire within the Church and the broader Parkes community to grow this service by utilising more food that would otherwise go to waste. The funding will enable the Church to buy new kitchen equipment, including freezers and a dishwasher and construct a built-in pantry to rescue more food and keep it fresh until it is needed.

Winmalee Neighbourhood Centre

Expansion of Winmalee Community Food Cupboard – $11,950

The funding will provide new equipment to expand the Winmalee Community Food Cupboard services, which aim to strengthen communities and nourish the lives of the most vulnerable members of the community. The program provides social benefits, such as good quality healthy food, safe storage and educational opportunities while reducing food wastage that would otherwise be the end product of landfill.

In the 2017 round the Environmental Trust approved 4 grants, totalling $636,053.

Foodbank NSW & ACT Limited

Foodbank NSW & ACT increase in capacity to handle rescued food – $191,307

This project enables Foodbank NSW & ACT (FBNA) to increase capacity in its warehouse so that it can accept and process an additional 600 tonnes of food that is diverted from landfill each year. This will help FBNA meet more of the currently unmet demand for food. The project will procure new forklifts, a pallet mover and a bulk-produce sorting and packing line to increase the quality and quantity of packed fresh produce.

OzHarvest

OzHarvest NSW Metropolitan Food Rescue Expansion – $299,410

OzHarvest is Australia’s leading food rescue organisation, collecting quality excess food and delivering it to charities supporting people in need. Food rescue in Sydney has grown considerably since inception in 2004 with now over 1200 food donors and 330 charities engaged in the program. Despite this, food insecurity is still a devastating national issue. Over 44,000 people each month are turned away from food-relief charities empty-handed. Through our proposed expansion we will purchase 2 new refrigerated vehicles and one high-capacity refrigerated truck, to increase the food being diverted from landfill by 520 tonnes (over 1 year), providing 1,560,000 nourishing meals to those in need.

OzHarvest

OzHarvest NSW Regional Food Rescue Expansion – $88,482

OzHarvest is Australia’s leading food rescue organisation, collecting excess food from over 3000 donors and delivering to more than 1000 charities. In the last financial year, OzHarvest’s Regional NSW Chapters have increased operations and diverted over 350 tonnes of quality surplus food from landfill (equivalent of 1 million meals for people in need). Despite this, food insecurity is still a devastating national issue with over 44,000 people each month being turned away from food-relief charities empty-handed. Through OzHarvest’s Regional Food Rescue Program Expansion, we propose to increase the food being diverted from landfill by 43 tonnes, providing 130,000 nourishing meals to people in need across NSW.

Salvation Army Auburn

Auburn Food for Life Food Market – $56,854

The Auburn Food for Life Food Market will provide low cost and free nutritious food sourced from food-rescue agencies and other businesses to disadvantaged community members. The Cumberland local-government area is one of the most disadvantaged communities according to the Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA Index) produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The recent closure of a large food-distribution program in Auburn has left a big gap in the social infrastructure of the community. The Salvation Army is dedicating and converting a significant space in its accessible property in South Parade, Auburn, to open a food market. The food market aims to assist local people experiencing financial stress to reduce their cost of living by providing access to free and affordable food, as well as reduce food wastage in the local area.

In the 2016 round the Environmental Trust approved 4 grants, totalling $584,459.

Coast Shelter

Community centre freezer – $33,989

Coast Shelter Community Centre project will build a larger freezer to meet demand for donated food storage. The Centre provides more than 50,000 meals a year to the homeless and those at risk of homelessness. Food is collected daily from major retailers and while much can be used within the next few days, goods that could be frozen and used later are often rejected due to the current lack of freezer storage space.

Mid Richmond Neighbourhood Centre

Far North Coast NSW food-recovery program – $190,970

The Consortium of Neighbourhood Centres Far North Coast (CONC) will expand and consolidate its food rescue and relief program and establish an integrated Far North Coast NSW food-recovery program. Two refrigerated vans, on-site refrigeration and freezers, storage equipment and cooking appliances will facilitate the regional project to increase food donations from local businesses and redistribute these donations across seven local government areas. The food recovery program will aim to rescue 243 tonnes per year and will provide an estimated 150,000 nutritious meals to vulnerable and disadvantaged individuals and families through 6 neighbourhood centres and two Brighter Future Program offices.

SecondBite Melbourne

SecondBite fresh food rescue and redistribution expansion in NSW – $270,000

This project will enable SecondBite to buy a new truck, 2 vans and freezer equipment for the newly relocated distribution warehouse in western Sydney. As a result, SecondBite will be able to rescue an additional 524,000 kilograms of high-quality surplus fresh food a year, preventing harmful greenhouse gases if sent to landfill, and provide an additional 1,048,000 nutritious meals each year for people in need in NSW.

Settlement Services International Limited

The Staples Bag – $89,500

The Staples Bag is a non-profit community food project that improves access to nutritious and affordable staple grocery items for the most disadvantaged members of the community. Settlement Services currently provide more than 750 bags of high-quality essential staple groceries every week to families and individuals in need, operate a food pantry in Campsie, a low-income suburb in Sydney’s inner west, and also run 15 weekly pop-up grocery stores across Sydney. This project will enable Settlement Services to purchase much-needed infrastructure to expand their ability to accept food donations and redistribute to people in need by providing a van, cool rooms and freezer.

In the 2015 round the Environmental Trust approved 7 grants, totalling $932,428.

Addison Road Centre for Arts, Culture, Community and Environment

Tucker and Land Justice Food Pantry – $93,634

This project will divert organic waste from local food outlets and manufacturers to hungry mouths. The centre’s location creates a unique opportunity to address a cross-section of issues. The Inner West is a food oasis, with an abundance of businesses sending food waste to landfill. With a widening socio-economic gap between high-income and marginalised groups, and a severe shortage of food rescue and redistribution organisations, there’s an acute need that we can meet. Local businesses are enthusiastic about helping to close this gap, while at the same time having a positive environmental impact and saving on disposal costs.

ALL

Best Start school food project – $98,350

It is estimated 1 in 7 children in NSW go to school without breakfast, making concentration and academic success difficult. In some schools in the Illawarra it is estimated 1 in 2 children go hungry. This project will help to redress this profound disadvantage by providing nutritious meals for students from food destined for landfill. We will create, through our 2 chefs and the help of volunteers, delicious and nutritious meals based on the fresh food available. The project aims to provide 100,800 meals per year, including breakfast, morning tea, lunch and evening meal for students, for free. Initially we will start at Albion Park Rail Public School and then extend the program.

Food Fairness Illawarra

Illawarra food-recovery and distribution hub – $396,663

The Illawarra food-recovery and distribution hub uses a regional approach to bring together local agencies, charity organisations and businesses involved in the donation, rescue and distribution of food. By working collaboratively, the project will increase the food rescued in the region from 33 tonnes per week to 58 tonnes per week, providing more than 2600 sit-down meals, 2500 food hampers and 2100 outreach meals. Overall, this project will result in the delivery of more than 7000 meals each week to families in the Illawarra region.

Jesuit Social Services

Ignite food outreach – $149,091

This project sources free fresh and packaged food which is surplus to the store suppliers and would have been directed to landfill. The food is redistributed to disadvantaged people in the western and parts of north-western suburbs of Sydney. The project has multiple food sources that donate to the Ignite food store: donors include Harris Farm Markets, Sydney Care, Foodbank, Coles Second Bite, IGA, local primary and school can drives, and North Sydney–Lavender Bay and Kirribilli parishes. The food is picked up from the designated sources regularly in the mornings and taken back to the Ignite food store. This store is important in supplying food for meals to the most disadvantaged of the local Blacktown, Campbelltown and Penrith communities. The funding from the grant will allow for a new refrigerated truck and van, which is estimated to provide an extra 215,000 meals.

OzHarvest

Sydney North-west and Schools Food Rescue Expansion – $110,728

The Sydney North-west and Schools Food Rescue Expansion project aims to reduce food waste by 260 tonnes per annum and increase the amount of surplus food collected and redistributed to charitable agencies and schools for people in need. The project will support 2 additional refrigerated trucks within the region. Local food businesses including supermarkets, cafes, restaurants, markets and caterers will be engaged to donate their excess food, enabling more people to benefit from good food that would otherwise go to landfill.

Providential Homes Inc.

Food for the homeless community outreach – $65,700

Providential Homes takes good-quality food that would otherwise go to waste in landfill, and distributes it free of charge to homeless persons who are temporary emergency and transitional guests in Providential Homes accommodation, and also into the wider community. Currently Providential accommodates up to 170 persons and provides meals for up to 100 guests per day, however accommodation capacity is shortly to rise to 300. The Food for the Homeless Project will fund a refrigerated light truck and allow provision of meals for all 300 of our guests, and additional meals for the homeless and other disadvantaged persons not in our accommodation.

Tharawal Aboriginal Corporation

Tharawal food rescue/food pantry pilot implementation plan – $18,262

Tharawal is located in south-western Sydney (one of the most disadvantaged regions in NSW) and is home to one of the largest Aboriginal populations in NSW. Tharawal, in conjunction with regional partners is looking to establish a food pantry/food rescue outlet to provide much needed support to the local Aboriginal community through the provision of food staples while simultaneously reduced food-based landfill. To establish this service, Tharawal and its partners are looking to implement a pilot program that will engage with the local food retailers (i.e. supermarkets, restaurants, food manufacturers) to establish requirements for a larger-scale operation.

In the 2014 round the Environmental Trust approved 4 grants, totalling $186,018.

OzHarvest

Food rescue logistics equipment – $29,853

OzHarvest will purchase a forklift and shelving for the OzHarvest warehouse facility in Alexandria. The equipment will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of warehouse operations allowing approximately 115 additional tonnes per year of bulk foods to be diverted from landfill, processed through the warehouse and redistributed.

OzHarvest

Northern Sydney region food rescue expansion – $61,364

The purchase of a refrigerated vehicle will allow OzHarvest to substantially increase the amount of surplus food collected and redistributed to charitable agencies for people in need within the council regions of Mosman, Manly, Warringah, Pittwater, North Sydney, Lane Cove, Willoughby and Ku-ring-gai. Local food businesses including supermarkets, cafes, restaurants, markets and caterers will be engaged to donate their excess food, enabling more people to benefit from good food that would otherwise go to landfill. The project will divert approximately 139 tonnes per year of good quality food from landfill and deliver a further 400,000 meals to charities providing food to people in need.

SecondBite

SecondBite fresh food rescue and redistribution expansion into the Illawarra region – $56,745

SecondBite will purchase a refrigerated van and expand the rescue of surplus fresh food and its redistribution to vulnerable people and their families in the Illawarra region. SecondBite will be able to rescue an additional 2885 kilograms per week of surplus fresh food that was going to landfill and provide an additional 300,000 meals per year.

Winmalee Neighbourhood Centre

Winmalee community food cupboard – $38,056

This project will expand the collection and redistribution of food donation in the Blue Mountains and Nepean Local Government Areas through a partnership with a number of community groups. Winmalee Neighbourhood Centre will purchase a refrigerated vehicle and the storage infrastructure to safely carry, maintain and handle quality but perishable food recovered from local businesses.

In the 2013 round the Environmental Trust approved 3 grants, totalling $1,243,977.

Earth Recovery Australia Ltd

Blue Mountains Food Rescue – $27,587

Earth Recovery Australia is expanding Blue Mountains Food Rescue from a one-day-a-week to a 5-days-a-week program. A new vehicle and storage fridges will allow collection for more safe and nutritious food from local restaurants, cafes, supermarkets and bakeries. Volunteers and trainees will prepare the food into meals and meal parcels for disadvantaged residents, while also reducing waste going to landfill, raising awareness about waste and helping to alleviate social isolation felt by people in need.

Foodbank NSW Limited

Project Salvation – $1,139,890

Foodbank NSW’s Project Salvation will more than double the quantity of healthy food it salvages and distributes to the poor (7500 tonnes each year). Funding will provide capital assistance to fit out Foodbank’s new warehouse with energy efficient chillers and freezers, racks, packing and handling equipment, forklifts and vehicles. Foodbank already sources food waste from more than 200 growers, distributors, retailers and other suppliers across NSW, providing it to 556 charities that help people in need. However, demand for food relief is rising and currently exceeds supply. The funding will allow Project Salvation to provide an additional 4.8 million meals to Australians in crisis, half of them children. As well as diverting food from landfill, Project Salvation will provide job training to disadvantaged people and stimulate an estimated $174 million in economic benefits over 20 years.

SecondBite

Growing SecondBite’s rescue and redistribution of surplus fresh food – $76,500

This project will fund SecondBite to expand the rescue of surplus fresh food from food retailers and caterers and to redistribute it to vulnerable people and their families. One van will rescue an additional 5000 kilograms per week of food that would otherwise end up being landfill – 520,000 healthy nutritious meals per year for people in need.