Leonie Dillon was introduced as a School and Community Ambassador for OzHarvest. She is also an education guide. She began her working life teaching in Kew Gardens, UK, before moving to Sydney where she continues to work in the teaching profession. Apart from teaching, her “other passion” is “food” and specifically “food education” and “restoration” and this is why she is now an OzHarvest ambassador.
According to Leonie, some 1.3 billion Tonnes of food per year is wasted in Australia – about a third of what the Country produces. This translates into a huge dollar, time, labour and fresh water wastage and robs our society of the opportunity to put food in the mouths of those who need it. Currently one in nine people in Australia don’t have enough to eat and yet the Country provides enough food to feed 61 million people, over twice our population.
Food wastage occurs “from paddock to plate” and most of this comes from our homes. Currently, in NSW, the amount of landfill food wastage per year would fill Sydney Harbour. In Australia it is now contributing to serious issues being experienced with general wastage landfill programs across the Country.
OzHarvest was created to address these food wastage, shortfall, non-restoration and education shortfalls. It currently deals with partner organisations to ‘harvest’ their left-over edible produce and package it for distribution to the needy, via a range of local charities. Since 2004 it has been working with some 3,500 food providers (e.g. Woolworths) to deliver some 20 million nourishing food parcels to people who would otherwise go without. The organisation is now a global leader in food wastage sustainability, with outlets in countries such as the UK, New Zealand, Thailand and South Africa.
OzHarvest operates under “four pillars” – it rescues, engages, innovates and educates people about food sustainability. In Sydney it operates two “hamper hubs” where food is transported to then packaged into hampers before being onforwarded to charities such as those who feed street people. This Covid year, it has been focussing on the needs of out of work youth and international students affected by the Pandemic.
OzHarvest engages with government and receives some funding to enable its non-volunteer staff to be paid. On the education front it runs a Food Education and Sustainability Training or FEAST program particularly aimed at primary school children whom it sees as being the “change agents” of our future food sustainability strategies. For instance it has been encouraging school children to pack their own lunches in order to get them to only eat what they need to or else keep fresh food that is not eaten for their next meal.
On the innovation and education fronts, OzHarvest is devising programs for more effective food storage and freezing in homes and elsewhere, better ways of managing food supplies in the home and more widespread use of composting and the recycling of discarded food scraps.
Leonie’s address prompted lively discussion following which she was warmly thanked for her interesting and informative account of Ozharvest and its food sustainability programs.