An update from Food Rescue April 14, 2013

To date, over 239,000 kg's of food saved and distributed to 35 agencies around WA! Dear Food Rescuers, We've made a steady start to 2013 and will soon be reaching the next milestone of 250,000 kg's rescued and distributed! Food businesses around Perth have been getting right into the spirit with some great food donations including over 1000 kg's of organic produce and gluten free pantry items donated by Coles from the Gluten Free and Healthy Living Expo in March. Our incredible team of loyal (and fun!) volunteers continues to increase with  volunteers working from our Belmont warehouse reaching just over 45! Thank you so much for your support and your tireless efforts in helping to reduce food waste and feeding people in need. A massive thanks to the teachers, parents and the boys at Christ Church Grammar School (CCGS) who are doing a fantastic job with sorting fruit and vegetable produce twice a week at the school.  That's 20 boys a week who are getting involved with weighing, sorting and quality checking the produce, not to mention the parents and staff who keep it running so smoothly! Check out their great work and more pics on the CCGS website- http://ccgs.wa.edu.au/we-offer/senior-school/service/christ-church-becomes-food-rescuers/ A special mention to the crew at Atlas Iron for their support and their generous donation in January. You're vital support helps us to continue to feed people who really need it and we can't thank you enough! If you'd like to get involved at Food Rescue we always need hands in the warehouse or drivers who are happy to collect and deliver the food. We'd love to hear from you! On behalf of the board and the team at Food Rescue, thank you so much for your incredible support. We couldn't do it without you! Sam Soley CEO

To date, over 197,000 kilos of food have been saved!
That's a total of over 394,000 meal equivalents,
distributed to over 30 agencies around WA.

Happy New Year and welcome to our new look newsletter!

2012 was a huge first year for Food Rescue, our presence in the community is starting to be felt and we know this from the level of enquiries from new volunteers, charities, and not to mention the wonderful letters of thanks from the people receiving our food. We truly are a community based organisation because without all of you, all the people who support us in so many different ways, we wouldn’t be able to continue to do what we do.  And what we do, saving food from landfill and providing healthy, wholesome food for people going without food is absolutely crucial!

Late last year our friends at Food Wise launched a new website which has very interesting and need to know facts about food waste. Food Rescue is very proud to be involved and now listed on their website as a go to charity for saving food in WA! Click on the link to go to the website:

http://foodwise.com.au/food-waste/business-food-waste/food-charities/

In November, Channel 7 contacted us to collect a whole pantry of food from the set of 'My Kitchen Rules' in Perth after they had done the filming. We collected over 500 kg's of excellent produce that our agencies were wrapped to recieve!

On the 16^th of November Channel 9 News Perth aired a story on Food Rescue and our supermarket collections. We’re so grateful to Shopfront for allowing the crew to get a glimpse and also the people who came forward to be interviewed. And of course we were so lucky to have such an awesome team of volunteers who were helping and happy to be filmed.  The story has created so much interest and has been fantastic with helping us get our name out there. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out our blog on our website.

http://foodrescue.blogspot.com.au/

Special thanks to Ausdrill for sending out a professional photographer to capture the sorting process by our volunteers for their Ausbits magazine! Special mention goes to Hugh Brown who did an amazing job, check out Hugh’s photos at our facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/FoodRescue

On the 10^th of December Food Rescue held a small Christmas party to say thanks to our wonderful volunteers and supporters. We are very grateful to Wrays for hosting the event for us and donating the catering and venue. A special mention to Tana and Julie from Wrays for organising the function and having everything running so smoothly. Thanks to all who attended and here are a couple of pics of the night.

            
Left to right: Picture 1 - Don Hancey (Ambassador Chef), Samantha Soley (Food Rescue GM) 
                     Picture 2 - John Armstrong, Brian Russell (Volunteer), Samantha Soley, Nick Ringrose.
                     Picture 3 - Kristy Caruso (Volunteer), Anne Thoume (Volunteer).
                     Picture 4 - Mike Godrich (Food Rescue Board), Gary Cox (Wrays)
 
Last but not least! A HUGE thanks to Inspired Money for joining the Food Rescue support crew by providing a very timely Christmas donation. Thanks so much for helping us feed people at Christmas time!

Food Rescue’s wish list!
If you have any of the following which you’re not using and are happy to give them away to a very good  cause then please think of us!

I  Laminator
I  Vacuum cleaner
I  Walkie Stacker

Please circulate this email to friends and family who might be interested to hear about the work we are doing.

On behalf of the board and the team at Food Rescue, thank you so much for your support in 2012 and we look forward to be working with you all to save food and feed people in 2013!

Food Heroes - Channel 9 News Thursday 15th November 2012

 Thanks to Channel 9 Perth for this great piece on Food Rescue.

October 2012 Update

To date over 159,000 kilograms of food saved and over 318,000 meal equivalents distributed!

 

What a month! We broke another record in October with an amazing 51,000 meal equivalents collected and distributed! It’s a far cry from our first collections in December being 3,000 meal equivalents.  A big thank you to our food donors, volunteers, staff and our supporters for making this happen. Without your support we couldn’t continue the work that we do.

It’s fantastic to have our vans on the road, which are helping to feed over 5,500 people each week but where would we be without our drivers? A big thank you to our staff and volunteers for driving our vans and a MASSIVE thank you to Downer EDI for funding the cost of one our drivers for a whole year.

Speaking of drivers, October saw us farewell the lovely Lolo our full time driver and we wish her all the best in her future endeavours. But we were lucky enough to welcome Paul as one of our Food Rescuers and he’s proving to be valuable asset.  Welcome aboard Paul!

As I mentioned last month we had students from Christ Church Grammar School come in and volunteer their time sorting the produce.  Some pics are due to follow soon but here’s what their teacher had to say about the experience

 “Some year 8 Humanities students volunteered after school at Food Rescue in Term 3.  They thoroughly enjoyed the hands on nature of the experience and the fact they could see how their help was going to have a positive effect for those in need.  The boys sorted the fresh food into the still edible food, and that food past their best. The food was then sorted into boxes of the same fruit or vegetables. Not only were the boys amazed at the amount of food wasted each day, but they also learned about new vegetables, previously unidentified!”

 

Nicole Xouris – Teacher of Humanities, Christ Church Grammar School

The generous people at Sharp Impressions, Pro Safety Gear and Elite Screenprinting donated high visibility vests to ensure our staff and volunteers are safe. They even screen printed our logo on them so everyone will know who we are. Although you can’t see his lovely face here’s a picture of George, one of our talented and dedicated volunteers modelling a new vest.

 

I’d like to give a special mention to the team at Equilibrium for ensuring our website looks fantastic. Thanks so much for working with us to get our name out there. We’d also like to wish you the best of luck with The Caxtons competition and we hope it wins! See below for the amazing work they are entering into the comp.

 

Food Rescue’s Santa’s List

If you have any of the following which you’re not using and are happy to give them away to a very good  cause then please think of us!

I  Small bar fridge

I  Laminator

I  Vacuum cleaner

I  Walkie Stacker

 
On behalf of the board and team at Food Rescue, thank you so much for your support.

We couldn’t do it without you!

September Update

To date over 133,000 kilograms of food saved and over 266,000 meal equivalents distributed!

Can you believe there is less than 3 months until Christmas? This means that Food Rescue needs to gear up so we can provide more nutritious food for those who might not be sitting down to a festive Christmas lunch.                                                                                            

Did you know, that with $20 Food Rescue can provide food for 19 nutritious meals? Our aim, to the end of December 2012 is to provide 100,000 meal equivalents to help those in need. We hope you will get behind us to achieve this! 

A big thanks again to Leap Consulting who so kindly facilitated a donation of a UPS (uninterrupted power supply for those who, like me, are not tech savvy). And a massive thank you to Letizia Palmer for donating it. We’re always surprised at the kindness of individuals and business and of course very grateful! 

For the month of September our vans, which are donated by Argonaut, Ausdrill and GR Engineering, delivered 37,000 meal equivalents.  No doubt they will be working overtime from here until Christmas! 

A big shout out to the year 8 Christchurch Grammar boys from Nicole Xouris’s Humanities Class. The boys had a ball getting in the warehouse and sorting the produce and learnt a few things along the way. Thanks to Nicole for organising the volunteering and we very much look forward to having their happy faces back in term 4. They were a great help and it’s fantastic to be able to show our kids how much good food would actually be going to waste. Some pics to follow in the coming weeks…

 

For anyone who’s ever volunteered at Food Rescue quality checking the produce, you would know that we weigh and record our waste at the end of every shift. The waste is then placed in an organic bin which is later converted into compost, soil conditioner and mulch products by Sita. However, some of our waste can still be used to feed animals.

 

Meet Harmony and Ebony doing their bit for Food Rescue!  Thanks Naomi for sending in the pic.  Some of our volunteers take scraps home to feed their chickens and ducks which we think is just fantastic.

Food Rescue’s Santa’s List

If you have any of the following which you’re not using and are happy to give them away to a very good  cause then please think of us!

* Small Bar Fridge	* Laminator	* Vacuum Cleaner
* White Board	* Walkie Stacker

 

On behalf of the board and team at Food Rescue, thank you so much for your support.

 We couldn’t do it without you!

 Sam

Samantha Soley                                                                              

General Manager

The Official Food Rescue Launch

His Excellency, Mr Malcolm McCusker, Governor of Western Australia and Mrs McCusker

Imagine watching some of Perth’s top chefs and food luminaries prepare their favourite gourmet specialities and then being served those culinary delights … this is exactly what the special guests of Food Rescue’s official launch were treated to last week.

Set amongst a backdrop of soft candlelight, fine wines and extremely talented musicians, our warehouse was magically transformed for Food Rescue donors, staff and volunteers to gather together and celebrate the charity’s significant milestones.

Our five food Ambassadors including Russell Blaikie, David Coomer, Don Hancey, Neal Jackson and Vince Garreffa joined Kevin Pham, Gogo Gavardhan, Hadleigh Troy and Simon Johnson to prepare and serve the most beautiful food imaginable throughout the evening.To top it off, Forrester Wines and Little Creatures provided wine and beer to complement the amazing cuisine.

The spirit of philanthropy was alive and well on the night as His Excellency, Mr Malcolm McCusker, Governor of Western Australia and Mrs McCusker were announced as Joint Patrons of Food Rescue. Compassion for our cause was clearly evident to those who came together on the evening.

We are so grateful to the many individuals and organisations that supported this event. Comestibles did an outstanding job with the catering service, and I Katcher Events and Luxe Events helped turn our warehouse into a stunning venue. Talented musicians that performed on the night included Libby Clements, Jacob Diamond, Natalie Gillespie and Trevor Jalla.

The sharing of fine food and wine, wonderful company and the benevolence of our guests all combined to make Food Rescue’s launch a remarkable experience.

Food Rescue at the Fremantle Markets

Markets are one of our favourite places to get our fresh produce but have you ever wondered what happens after they close at the end of the weekend? We have too.

Fremantle Markets provide fresh food and produce three days a week for people coming into the heart of Fremantle. It's a delicious and colourful combination of fruit and veg, coffee, hot foods, bakeries and ... well you won't go hungry there. Because the markets closes on Sunday and usually doesn't open again until Friday and fresh, nutritious food would otherwise go to waste, we thought it'd be ideal for a food rescue. It's a valuable source of good food for needy families to start the week with.


To the smell of fresh coffee and ripe mangoes we got together for opening at 8am  to explain who Food Rescue was are and what we do. Our Food Ambassadors, chefs Don Hancey, Russell Blaikie, and David Coomer joined volunteers, staff and directors to go around the markets and chat with stallholders. In just over an hour we'd spoken to everyone. Russell Blaikie said he was impressed with the positive response to what we do from everybody he spoke with - and this was shared by all of us.


On Sunday we'll be heading down with one of our vans to rescue some food.

What is food insecurity?

Although Australia is a wealthy country that produces vast amounts of food, significant parts of our community are affected by food insecurity. What's food insecurity? Food insecurity is about a lack of access by people to nutritionally adequate and safe food.
According to the World Health Organisation there are three key components:
1. Food access: the capacity to acquire and consume a nutritious diet. 
2. Food availability: the supply of food within a community affecting food security of individuals, households or an entire population.
3. Food use: the appropriate use of food based on knowledge of basic nutrition and care.
Food insecurity can range from to anxiety about access to extreme hunger because meals are missed or inadequate. And just as levels of food security can vary, people can shift in and out of levels of insecurity. It may be due to homelessness, unemployment, lack of mobility and access, or low income working families trying to meet regular or unexpected financial demands. Often the solution is to miss meals or be forced into low nutrition alternatives. The impact is hunger, social isolation, impacted performance at school, and poor physical and mental health, including obesity.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2002), almost 60,000 Australians in low-income working families go without meals or are food insecure.This includes around a quarter of Indigenous people, unemployed people, and single-parent households. 
There are lots of ways we can address this as a community. Food Rescue's goal is to address food insecurity by alleviating hunger through rescuing fresh nutritious food for people in need.