Regional Food Donation Project

Overview

Food insecurity is an urgent and escalating issue in the Illawarra, mirroring the national crisis. In 2023, nearly 2 million Australian households (19%) experienced severe food insecurity; 65,000 of these households live in the Illawarra lacking access to sufficient, healthy food to lead active, healthy lives.

At the same time, 7.6 million tonnes of food is wasted each year in Australia, 70% of which are perfectly edible.  The average Australian household throw away up to 20% of the food they purchase – that’s 1 out of 5 bags of groceries! Food waste is a significant contributor to climate change, and reducing it can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, not only from the methane when it goes to landfill, but at every stage of food production.  Imagine how much water, energy, transportation and packaging costs are wasted when we waste food!

One of the solutions is to rescue more food and get it to the schools, community centres and other organisations who provide food relief. Funded by the NSW Environmental Protection Authority, we are working to do this with our region’s food rescue and relief sector.

Aim

To divert more food from landfill and increase the amount of food relief in the Illawarra region.

Objectives

The project includes four sequential phases across a three-year period:

• Phase One – Understanding the terrain and co-creating solutions
• Phase Two – Delivering the Regional Food Donation Action Plan
• Phase Three – Empowering change
• Phase Four – Engaging communities

What’s involved

By increasing collaboration across food rescue and relief organisations, we can increase our collective impact. Whilst the project is still in early stages we will undertake various digital and in person communication and collection strategies to do so.

How it works

After a successful pilot project in 2022, the NSW Environment Protection Authority awarded Healthy Cities Australia a grant to strengthen connections and increasing collaboration across the food rescue and relief sector to increase rescued food donations in the Illawarra region. The provision of the grant allows us to employ a Fair Food Coordinator to provide strategic, logistical and practical assistance to Illawarra based organisations to increase food donations, reduce food waste, and support food relief programs. This includes implementing a Food Rescue & Relief Collective Action Plan, creating and distributing education resources and materials, streamlining communication and hosting regular meetings and workshops for the sector, advocacy, measuring and reporting.

Testimonial

“It’s wonderful to have an open forum to speak about the challenges, trends and wins we are all having.”

Olivia Penner-Dilworth, OzHarvest