Some of Australia’s leading food and grocery companies will this week be honoured by Foodbank Australia for their efforts to reduce food waste and alleviate hunger through donations of significant amounts of products to people in urgent need. A range of food companies will receive special Foodbank Awards – to be presented by television personality Ernie Dingo in Canberra – at the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) annual dinner at the National Portrait Gallery on Wednesday. Foodbank... ...Read more »

The food and grocery sector needs to unite to use its influence and contacts if the world is to address the “forgotten Millennium Goal” of hidden hunger, according to a Joint Declaration signed today by some of the world’s biggest food and nutrition companies. The companies involved – DSM, Unilever, Pepsico, Amway and Interflour – committed themselves to re-invigorating the private sector’s contribution to tackling hidden hunger. They agreed to expand their ongoing... ...Read more »

While the stockmarket continues to head toward the floor the need for food relief has gone through the roof. Australia’s largest hunger relief organisation, Foodbank Australia, is discovering just how much impact the Wall Street crash has had on some here in Australia. “We can’t remember our warehouses being so empty and the need for food relief being so high,” Foodbank Australia’s CEO, Bronwyn Boekenstein, advised. “There’s no doubt that the economic downturn... ...Read more »

The season of festive cheer is fast approaching – but for some Australians, this Christmas and New Year will be one of the toughest yet. Foodbank, Australia’s largest hunger relief organisation – distributing food to more than 1900 welfare agencies, is looking for donations from the food industry and consumers to create “an Australia without hunger”. According to Foodbank, two million people in Australia – over half of whom are children – rely on food relief... ...Read more »

FareShare, a not-for-profit organisation that rescues surplus food to prepare healthy meals for Melbourne’s hungry and homeless, yesterday launched a new ‘calculator’ that can measure the environmental benefits of donating surplus food. Produced in conjunction with Sustainability Victoria and Hyder Consulting, the MS Excel ‘Food Recovery Environmental Benefits Calculator’ can estimate the savings in water, landfill, energy and greenhouse gas emissions of 40 food ingredients. “To... ...Read more »

When an affluent country like Australia needs to provide breakfast programmes in schools to ensure energy for children who otherwise would sit in class hungry, bells should be ringing throughout the food industry to prompt the question… “how great is the need for food assistance really?” Australian Food News visited the Victorian warehouse of Foodbank (Victorian Relief & Foodbank Limited) to better understand the scale of need for food relief amongst struggling Australians and... ...Read more »