Waste Not, Want Not

If the recent footage of tonnes of strawberries being dumped amidst worries of needles shocked you, it shouldn’t have.

IT’S ESTIMATED THAT every year more than five million tonnes of surplus food ends up in landfill in Australia alone. This number would be even higher if it wasn’t for a team of distinctive yellow vans and a passionate group of staff and volunteers.

OzHarvest was founded in 2004 by Sydneysider Ronni Kahn, who was frustrated by the enormous volume of food being discarded from the hospitality industry. She decided to ‘rescue’ the food and changed the way Australia thinks about waste in the process. OzHarvest now operates in more than 10 locations across Australia, with Canberra joining the movement in 2008.

Dave Burnet, OzHarvest’s Manager for ACT and Territories, has been with the Canberra operation since the beginning. When I ask him what has changed over the past decade he laughs and says it’s probably easier to list the things that haven’t.

“I remember the first day I went out as [OzHarvest Canberra] coordinator,” says Dave, reminiscing about the sandwiches, cheese and baked goods his team received from early adopters like Manuka Fine Foods and the National Convention Centre. It was quality, fresh food, but it quickly became apparent to Dave that this was not the nutritious, vitaminrich produce that the agencies they worked with sorely needed.

Back in 2008, OzHarvest Canberra supplied around 12 agencies, ranging from charities to women’s shelters—regardless of clientele, fresh food was universally coveted.

“They all said that while they were appreciative of the food we were giving them for free, they really did yearn for food and vegetables for their clients,” explains Dave.

So, Dave and his team hit the road, meeting with supermarket and market management to hand-sell the idea of donating fresh food and vegetables. He explains that this has always been the OzHarvest approach—to engage potential donors through face-to-face interaction. With Dave’s sunny manner, warm smile and goal of community assistance, it’s hard to think of anyone denying him. But the answer was a resounding ‘no thanks’.

It’s making a hell of a lot of difference out there...Not just environmentally. It ends up having great social and health benefits for the community.

“They didn’t get it. It was a really hard slog,” he says. “Everyone kept wanting to give us bread and I had to say ‘sorry, we’ve got enough thanks,’ as it was low-nutrition. It certainly fed people, but it wasn’t near enough.”

In the first few months of operation, a good week for OzHarvest Canberra saw the rescue and distribution of around 300 kilos of food, with one van. But the name and message was beginning to make its way across Canberra, with Dave crediting support from the local community as a huge factor.

“Canberra is a really amazing place when it comes to community support,” he says. ”So, we had a second van generously donated. But I was just aching and fretting, to be honest, about filling it with good-quality food.”

It’s interesting to note that Canberra was OzHarvest’s second Australian branch. While proximity to Sydney was likely a factor, it’s obvious from Dave’s stories that while Canberra prides itself on its polished image, its need is no less acute.

“After 20 years in the media and community services, actually seeing the problems hidden in Canberra really blew my mind,” he says. “I couldn’t believe there was such a level of genuine need out there.”

Luckily, a turning point came for Dave and his team— in the form of a single supermarket.

“I approached an ALDI store that was opening in Weston Creek. I put an information pack together and went out there, expecting to be shown the door.” But the manager he spoke to was surprisingly receptive, and a few days later, Dave got a call.

“She said, ‘I love this, we all love this’. I almost drove off the road,” laughs Dave. “Because we had no supermarkets. We met the next week and that’s how we started with our first supermarket.”

This might sound like a dramatic retelling, but the impact of this single supermarket’s support cannot be overstated. On the very first pick up, Dave and his team collected six trolleys full of fresh produce.

“It was tomatoes and onions and carrots and pumpkin—it was what we’d been dreaming about for so long,” says Dave. “From memory is was around 350 kilos—more than we’d normally get in a week. You can imagine how thrilled we were.”

The same manager then gave Dave some good news. ALDI wanted to roll out the program in all its Canberra stores, as they opened. That decision brought OzHarvest’s weekly total from 300kgs to easily over a thousand kilos.

“It was exactly what the charities needed,” says Dave. After word got out about ALDI’s new partnership, other supermarkets eagerly jumped onboard; many of whom, Dave notes wryly, had declined to be involved in the past.

Now with a decade of service under its belt, OzHarvest Canberra has three vans and is about to add a truck to its fleet. In September 2018 alone, the team rescued and repurposed over 43 tonnes of food. In August, it was over 47 tonnes.

“And these are not historically busy months for us,” says Dave. “The busiest month is always September and this year we’re gearing up for around 60 tonnes.”

Of course, this also lines up with Canberra’s biggest time of need—the holiday period—a time at which many charities, shelters and aid organisations are working at peak capacity. However, thanks to the amendment of laws around food handling that aid in the protection of both OzHarvest and its donors, and the participation of supermarkets, Dave and his team have been able to take on more agencies. They now service just under 70 charities in Canberra, Queanbeyan and Yass.

It’s not just big-name stores either. Many iconic local brands (big and small) generously donate their surplus to OzHarvest. Dave lists Canberra Milk, BumNuts Australia and Majura Valley Eggs among those who make sure that local agencies always have kitchen staples on hand. Dave is also a regular at both Northside and Southside Farmers Markets, ready to take any fresh produce that stallholders don’t sell.

It’s through this massive community effort and the tireless hours spent by Dave and his team that allows OzHarvest to seamlessly translate food waste into full bellies for those in need.

“It’s making a hell of a lot of difference out there,” says Dave. Not just environmentally. It ends up having great social and health benefits for the community.”

FROM THROWAWAY TO TABLE

To shine a light on some of the excellent produce OzHarvest rescues on a daily basis, we challenged two of Canberra’s top chefs to a cook-off with a box of rescued produce. Think rescued food is unappealing? Think again.

The chefs in question are John Leverink of Pod Food and The Boat House and Carlos Ramirez of Mr Papa. With their unique styles—one, a fine food chef with a predilection for molecular gastronomy; the other, one of Canberra’s favourite street food chefs—they each brought a different creative flair to the table.

“We were keen to support this great cause simply because nobody wants to see good food go to waste,” says Carlos. “Why not turn rescued food into goodness that can be shared with people in need?”

For the Peruvian-born chef, the challenge represented an opportunity to create a favourite family meal, which is an inexpensive dish that anyone can recreate at home—‘Lomo Saltado’. A traditional Peruvian-Cantonese stirfry, the dish is created using “five simple ingredients that we see everyday— tomato, onion, shallots, beef and potatoes”.

Left to right: Moncho, Carlos Ramirez, Dave Burnet, John Leverink.

“There is always a chance to use leftover food and turn it into a fabulous and nutritious meal,” says Carlos. “Simply, cooking with love.”

For chef John Leverink, the culinary talent behind two of Canberra’s most revered fine-dining establishments, it’s about raising awareness among peers, as well as the broader community.

“It’s important that everyone is aware of what OzHarvest does for the community,” says John. “It’s also good for other chefs…to also be aware of the food that we’re wasting.”

John says he wanted to use the challenge to demonstrate “how quick and easy it is to turn reclaimed food into a meal for those who need it most in a short time.”

For his dish, John chose to create a Turkishinspired braised chicken and vegetable dish that was “nothing fancy or complicated”, but tasty and wholesome, using capsicums, tomatoes, onions, potatoes and spices like cumin, paprika and coriander.

But for John, it didn’t end there. At the end of the challenge, he had made enough serves for 20 people, which were packaged up by Dave and popped into the back of a yellow OzHarvest van, ready to nourish the community. Waste not, want not. •

Thank you to the team at The Boat House for allowing us to use their kitchen space for the cook off.

WORDS Beatrice Smith

PHOTOGRAPHY Tim Bean