OzHarvest Melbourne

OzHarvest (www.ozharvest.org) is a for impact charitable organisation with a purpose to nourish our country. It began with a simple concept that was to rescue excess food from restaurants, retailers, food outlets, TV sets, film shoots, supermarkets and corporate kitchens that would otherwise be discarded, and deliver it to charities that feed the disadvantaged, homeless and vulnerable Australians in need. At the same time, thousands of tonnes of food have been saved from ending up as landfill.

OzHarvest is the only food rescue organisation that rescues all types of food in Australia. It is a simple, effective service and is provided free to both food donor and recipient. The food is picked up and delivered the same day using refrigerated vans with a changing daily schedule.

OzHarvest was established in November 2004 and with one van we delivered 4000 meals in our first month of operation.

We now have 19 vans that operate in Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle, Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne. Since inception in 2004, we have delivered more than 17 million meals to people in need.

Each week we collect over 35 tonnes of good food that would otherwise end up in landfill from over 2000 food donors. We deliver this food to over 500 charities that feed people in need.

The service that OzHarvest offers has now expanded into community education and awareness through programs such as Cooking for a Cause and NEST. Cooking for a Cause connects and engages the corporate community through our volunteering offerings, while through the NEST program (Nutrition Education Sustenance Training) we educate disadvantaged communities about nutrition and healthy eating, providing valuable life skills to these communities.

We also save the planet by minimising good food from going to landfill. We were chosen as the official partners of the United Nations Environment Program for the global Think.Eat.Save initiative.