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Food for Thought

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Ten million meals

“My name is Ken and I am a rough sleeper. I have been living on the streets of Sydney for the past 10 years and I am 62 years old. The years have been very hard on both mind and body, but one thing has made the past five years bearable and that is OzHarvest. They don’t only feed people like me with fresh and nutritious food but they supply drop-in centres right across Sydney. We, the homeless, are forever grateful for the caring people of OzHarvest. We love and thank you OzHarvest.”

OzHarvest is a non-denominational charity that collects and delivers perishable excess food from food wholesalers, retailers, function centres, caterers, supermarkets, corporate offices, restaurants, and cafes and delivers it to charities feeding people in need on the same day. They don’t store or warehouse food. Currently they deliver 333,000 meals a month Australia wide with a fleet of 16 vans. By distributing food to those in need, they turn excess food into a resource and save thousands of kilograms of food from being dumped as landfill each year.

Ronni Kahn

It all began when founding director Ronni Kahn decided that she was not prepared to be part of the waste cycle that is a natural outcome of the hospitality industry. Being part of this industry for over 20 years, she saw a lot of food thrown away. Researching options for dealing with excess perishable food, she found there was no organisation in Sydney that could collect the food on a regular and professional basis, so she set up a food rescue charity herself. Backed by The Macquarie Group Foundation which provided funds and Goodman International which provided a van and office space, OzHarvest was established and collected its first meal in November 2004.

Share your favourite low GI recipe making the most of left-overs OzHarvest is now celebrating collecting and delivering ten million meals to disadvantaged Australians by creating cookbook called Ten Million Meals which will weave together personal stories and recipes using left-overs. It will feature recipes from Jamie Oliver, Neil Perry, Matt Moran, Maggie Beer, Kylie Kwong and Bill Granger along with recipes from the rest of us who feed our families every day. How about sending in your favourite low GI one? They’d want to know a little about your recipe too. Is it a family favourite? Has it been passed down through generations? Or is it something you recently whipped up with left-overs in the fridge? The closing date for submission is 19 December 2011. Check out the guidelines HERE and let your recipe be part of a program where food builds bridges to friendship.

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