Eight Councils from the Northern Beaches and North Shore have partnered with OzHarvest, an organisation that collects surplus food from local businesses to give to charities.
Food collected by the organisation comes from locations as varied as markets, supermarkets, hotels, farmers, stadiums, catering companies, cafes, restaurants, film and TV shoots and boardrooms.
OzHarvest vans then distribute food to local charitable organisations, such as homeless shelters.
In the new partnership, OzHarvest will receive funding from the NSW Government’s Waste Less Recycle More Initiative for a new collection van.
Councils supporting the partnership are Manly, Mosman, Pittwater, Warringah, Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, North Sydney and Willoughby.
An estimated 139 tonnes of food will be saved from landfill through this collaboration. Each year businesses in Sydney throw away more than 300,000 tonnes of food.
Mayor of Manly and SHOROC Vice-President, Councillor Jean Hay AM helped launch the new van with OzHarvest chef ambassadors and local charity recipients.
“As Mayor of Manly and SHOROC Vice-President, I am very proud to be able to launch this project. It is an Australian-first with councils from the Northern Beaches and North Shore partnering OzHarvest in collecting surplus food from local businesses to give to charities rather than being thrown away.
“Businesses save money by not having to pay to get rid of surplus food, but more importantly have the satisfaction of knowing they are making a valuable contribution to those in need in their local community.”
The project is a NSW EPA Waste Less Recycle More initiative funded from the waste levy and is part of SHOROC’s Too Good to Waste strategy.
