Since it’s inception, OzHarvest has delivered more than 20,000,000 meals to those in need – that’s 6,000 tonnes of food, diverted from landfill.
And that is simply staggering.
For anyone who isn’t familiar with OzHarvest, they’re an amazing charity that rescues surplus food, educates vulnerable people on how to live a more nurtured and nourishing life, and raises awareness about the true value of food and local farming.
We sat down with OzHarvest CEO, Ronni Khan to ask her what inspired her to start OzHarvest, her new partnership with Woolworths and what Christmas looks like for people in need.
Q: What inspired you to start OzHarvest?
A: Well in my business life, as an event producer, I kept seeing surplus food. I was creating it, in fact, because I wanted to make sure no one went hungry at any of my events.
You’ve probably been to an event where there wasn’t enough food and you probably didn’t feel good about that event, you didn’t think that host was generous and kind of left bad feeling. No one ever left my events thinking my host or the client I was working with wasn’t abundantly generous, so I was producing masses of surplus food. If I were producing it, so were others. I knew there were people in need because I’d seen them. I figured if I could connect those two it would be a good thing, and it seems like it has been, so much so that we just delivered our 42nd millionth meal from good food that would have otherwise gone to waste.
Q: What does the OzHarvest community look like?
A: Our staff and our funders, all describe it as a family. So I think that word, ‘family’, encompasses exactly how OzHarvest lives and breathes. We’re an extraordinary community who are completely committed to having as big an impact as possible within the space.
Q: You’ve recently gone into partnership with Woolworths. Can you explain to me what that means to you?
A: We have a very exciting new partnership with Australia’s biggest food retailer. It highlights first of all, the value that we bring together, to the community. Woolworths is completely committed and hopes to have a zero waste policy by 2020. OzHarvest is about rescuing food and making sure that good food does not go to waste - so, it’s a perfect partnership, because together we can achieve that goal.