Page 25 - Packaging News Jan-Feb 2020

APPMA SUPPORTS OZHARVEST TO FIGHT FOOD WASTE
APPMA NEWS
Waste not, want not
Five million Australians are food insecure at any given time, yet we throw away 7.3 million tonnes of food waste each year. OzHarvest is working to change this, as Queensland manager Amy Cobb told APPMA members at a dinner in Brisbane late last year.
LEFT: OzHarvest’s depiction of Australia’s annual food waste if it were to appear in Sydney Harbour.
ABOVE: OzHarvest’s Amy Cobb (centre) with (from left) Anna Dreyer, Heat and Control; Sharon Amos, PKN; Tracy Anderson and Brittany Cook, Heat and Control.
To help OzHarvest Brisbane celebrate its eighth birthday with those in the community experiencing hardship, the APPMA recently sponsored two celebration cakes to the value of $1000 each. Mark Dingley, chairman of the APPMA, said, “OzHarvest is of one of Australia’s leading food-rescue organisations, and its aims are very close to the association’s heart. Amy Cobb, OzHarvest’s Queensland state manager, spoke at our closing member dinner for 2019, and her comments really struck a chord with so many members in the room.”
Dingley said, “For each $1000 cake sponsorship, we knew our APPMA members were funding 2000 meals that OzHarvest Brisbane delivered to those in need, saving 666.7 kilograms of food, along with preventing 1,266.7kg of greenhouse emissions from entering the atmosphere.
“It’s fantastic to know that the APPMA was part of helping OzHarvest raise funds to deliver more than 114,000 meals before Christmas.
“Reducing food waste, using resources wisely and making sure we help those in our community who would otherwise go without are three core APPMA beliefs. OzHarvest does an outstanding hands-on job of supporting communities in this way, while actively reducing food waste.
“Because we hold this organisation in high esteem, the APPMA Board has committed to exploring how we can best support OzHarvest in future years while also encouraging our members to do the same.”
Ronni Kahn AO, OzHarvest’s CEO (centre), and Amy Cobb (2nd from right), OzHarvest’s Queensland state manager, with guests at OzHarvest Brisbane’s eighth birthday celebration held at Canefields Clubhouse.
While the 55 professionals from 22 APPMA member companies attending the dinner were undoubtedly aware of the food waste issue in broad terms, as Amy Cobb started delivering the data for Australia and Queensland specifically, you could have heard a pin drop in the room.
About a third of all food produced goes to waste somewhere along the supply chain – 7.3 million tons of it annually in Australia – with most of it ending up in landfill, she said.
Cobb went on to say that the five million people who rely on food relief around Australia are from all walks of life, and up to a third of these are children.
The OzHarvest model, which involves the collection of food that would otherwise be wasted from retailers and food service outlets, and the delivery to charities that then create meals for the people in need, has been replicated in the UK, New Zealand, Thailand and South Africa.
In Queensland, OzHarvest provides about 23 million nourishing meals to those in need by rescuing 7.2 million kilograms of food from 1300 donors, and delivering these to 425 charities who supply the meals directly to their needy communities.
“Through education and engagement we have changed behaviour and shifted awareness around food security and sustainability,” she said. “We’ve
already achieved significant change, and that’s what makes OzHarvest a leader in this space.”
According to Cobb, Woolworths is OzHarvest’s main retail partner.
“We’ve had incredible growth from Woolies; they’re really looking at how they can reduce their food waste footprint.
“Through our Food Rescue program, we take food that is close to its Best Before expiry date, but too close to get into the supermarket shelf. It is still good quality food, and we pick it up same day and get it to the charity that can convert it into a meal straight away.”
She closed her presentation by talking about what APPMA members could do to assist OzHarvest in its endeavours to fight food waste.
Apart from preventing food waste at home, she suggested members were well placed to have important conversations with producers, their customers.
“They may have products coming off the line that, due to a mislabelling error, or being underweight, for example, aren’t fit for the supermarket shelf. Rather than throwing those out, they could call OzHarvest who would get the food into the right hands quickly,” she said.
Cobb said OzHarvest welcomed any new ideas for collaboration that may come from industry.
“We still have some heavy lifting to do, but we’re excited about the impactful change we can bring about together,” she said.
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