On a glorious September morning, Maryam and Sabrah took a trip to Food Rescue.
Food Rescue are this amazing agency who rescue food from going to waste. They have asked supermarkets and cafes around Perth to put away the food they were going to throw away at the end of the day so their drivers can rescue it!
The Food Rescue team have 3 vans pick up donations from the major supermarkets in Perth. Collectively these vans can fit 2,000kg per trip. That’s a lot of food!
They also have some funky looking carts that are used to pick up left over food from cafes in the Perth CBD.
The food that comes back to Food Rescue is in pretty good nick. The ones that aren’t are sorted out and sent for composting. The clever people at Food Rescue are even thinking up ways of making the compost work for them! How? I guess you’ll have to follow them to find out 🙂
The donations are sorted and redistributed as:
– Food boxes that are supplied to various charities around Perth.
– Veggie boxes for Schools that are part of the 5,000 meals project.
Food Rescue work with agencies such as Family Foundation who work with people living in their cars. The food rescued from cafes in Perth is used to provide ready made lunches for school going kids currently living in cars with their families. The total number of families living in this circumstance has jumped from 5 families a day to roughly 17. Lyndon, the Operations Manager advises that these are not all repeat customers either.
We were heartened to see that everything at the premise is donated. From the food vans to the walk in freezers. The Food Rescue project is proof that collectively we can make a huge difference.
The programs the team at Food Rescue run are absolutely awe inspiring and a great use of surplus food. Ranging from food donation to outreach programs working with people to help them understand the value of nutrition and making better food choices for them and their families. You can follow the team via their Facebook page.
Halal Food Bank - Perth 