More than 300kg of surplus edible food has now been rescued and redistributed through the Illawarra Food Donations WhatsApp group, connecting local food businesses with food relief organisations across the Illawarra when surplus food becomes available.
Every day, perfectly edible food is thrown away because it’s no longer needed by a business, has reached its best-before date, or is simply leftover at the end of a service. At the same time, food relief organisations across our region are experiencing growing demand from people who are struggling to afford enough food.
The WhatsApp group was created as a simple way to connect these two sides of the problem. We know that food businesses don’t plan for surplus to happen every day, so can’t always commit to a regular, ongoing donation. A café might have leftover pastries at the end of a shift. A restaurant might have excess prepared food after a busy event. A retailer might have stock approaching its best-before date. Rather than sending perfectly edible food to landfill and paying for its disposal, staff can post what they have available in the group as and when it happens. If a local food relief organisation can use it, they respond directly and arrange collection.
It’s simple:
- Food business staff send a message when surplus edible food or stock is available.
- Food relief organisations respond if they can use it and arrange collection directly.
- Good food stays out of landfill and goes towards supporting people in our local community.
The group connects businesses across the Illawarra, from Helensburgh to Gerringong, with local organisations providing food relief.
Join the Illawarra Food Donations WhatsApp Group (food businesses/food relief ONLY)
The group has gained significant momentum through our recent food rescue campaign, with new local businesses joining and several businesses making their first-ever food donations through the group. Some of these new connections have now grown beyond one-off donations, with businesses beginning to establish regular donation relationships with local food relief organisations, showing just how valuable this simple tool is.
The problem
Food waste and food insecurity exist alongside each other. Australia produces an enormous amount of food, yet many people in our communities are experiencing food insecurity and increasingly turning to food relief services. At the same time, edible food continues to be thrown out.
Food rescue helps create a more circular local food system: instead of surplus food leaving the food system as waste, it can be redirected to where it is needed. However, connecting surplus food with people who need it is not as simple as having food available.
Someone needs to collect it. Someone needs somewhere to store it. Someone needs to coordinate where it goes, often at short notice. Food needs to be handled safely and distributed quickly, particularly when it is fresh or perishable. The WhatsApp group helps solve one part of that equation (connecting supply with demand) but it cannot solve the underlying resource constraints facing the food relief sector: infrastructure, transport, storage, staffing and coordination.
You can support the Illawarra Food Hub
Our food relief organisations are already doing extraordinary work with limited resources. As demand grows, expecting small community organisations and volunteers to absorb increasing volumes of rescued food without additional infrastructure is not sustainable.
That’s why Healthy Cities Australia is working towards the Illawarra Food Hub. Our vision is a proposed centralised facility designed to provide the storage, transport and coordination infrastructure needed to rescue and redistribute substantially more surplus food across our region. The more infrastructure we can put behind food rescue, the more food we can keep in our local food system and the more effectively we can support our community.
Your donation can help us build the infrastructure and resources needed to take food rescue to the next level.
