Coles, SecondBite plan food charity expansion to farmgate

COLES is expanding into the farm sector with plans for growers to provide produce to feed disadvantaged people.

Coles managing director John Durkan, left, with PPB chairman Ian Carson and SecondBite CEO Elaine Montegriffo. Picture: David Geraghty

THE multi-million-dollar community food program, backed by retail giant Coles, is expanding into the farm sector with plans to allow growers to provide produce that would have gone to waste for redistribution to the needy in capital city and regional areas.

The food charity SecondBite, founded a decade ago by PPB ­Advisory chairman and former Victorian Liberal Party president Ian Carson and his wife Simone, last year provided 13 million meals for disadvantaged people.

It presently serves 1200 community groups and is now expanding more into regional areas.

Two-and-a-half years ago it struck a national partnership with Coles and to date the program has provided over 6.5 million kilograms of fresh food donations. More than 500 Coles stores are now a part of the program.

“The unique thing about this relationship is that you see the effect of the food SecondBite collects from us immediately in the community. It is not like we just had a cheque over to a charity,’’ Coles managing director John Durkan told The Australian.

Now Mr Durkan and Mr Carson, who is chairman of SecondBite, want to expand the program to the farmgate.

“None of the growers want to see their products go to waste. They are very proud of the products they grow. So they love to be involved in terms of knowing that any product that may not have met the mark or come to the end of its life gets a great home. It brings us closer together with our growers,’’ Mr Durkan said.

He said SecondBite was also playing a larger societal role by rescuing fresh food from landfill and reducing the millions of kilowatts of energy used in the production of the food.

“When Wesfarmers bought the business there was a whole lot of waste that didn’t need to ­happen — a whole lot of stuff that went in the nick — it was our biggest issue actually — from a moral and financial perspective,’’ Mr Durkan said. “Six years ago the waste that left our business was just phenomenal, you just wouldn’t believe it. Now it is still a financial loss for the business but now it goes to a great aim.’’

The food charity sector is a growing business in Australia as the nation continues to throw out $8-10 billion worth of food every year. The largest player in the space is known as Foodbank, which deals in shelf stable, chilled and frozen food — primarily in palletised form.

Last year Foodbank marked the distribution of 200 million meals to Australians in crisis. Its supporters include Unilever, SPC Ardmona, Uncle Toby’s and dairy co-operative Murray Goulburn.

Other food rescue charities include OzHarvest, Food Rescue and Fareshare, which is supported by the Pratt family’s Visy Group and foundations such as the Besen Family foundation and the Myer Foundation. Recently Pact Group, the packaging company backed by billionaire Raphael Geminder, donated around 3000 rigid plastic crates to OzHarvest, for the storage and transportation of food stuffs.

Last week 40 of the nation’s top chefs joined with more than 100 business leaders at Carriageworks in the old Eveleigh Rail Yards in Sydney for the fourth annual OzHarvest CEO CookOff which raised $900,000 for 1000 vulnerable Sydneysiders.

CEOs and leaders who att­ended included Ernst & Young’s Tony Johnson, Macquarie Head of Personal Banking Tony ­Graham, HostPlus CEO David Elia, TFE Hotels CEO Rachel ­Argaman and Tabcorp CEO David Attenborough.

CEO and Founder of OzHarvest, Ronni Kahn, said that two million Australians relied on food relief each year and the number was growing. “We have a big vision to expand our Nutrition Education program, NEST and our hospitality training program for disadvantaged youth, Nourish. Now we can achieve this thanks to this unbelievable support,” Mr Kahn said.

OzHarvest collects surplus food from all types of providers, including fruit and vegetable markets, supermarkets, hotels, wholesalers, farmers, restaurants, and corporate events.

SecondBite focuses instead especially on fresh produce, with 75 per cent of the food it redistributes being fresh fruit and vegetables. “95 per cent of all food we provide is nutritious. We are starting to now introduce eggs and frozen meat,’’ says SecondBite chief ex­ecutive Elaine Montegriffo, who in 2012 took over from founding CEO Katy Barfield. “It is about improving the nutrition of people that are facing disadvantage. Helping people help themselves to eat better.”

She said that for corporations, charities like SecondBite were less about fulfilling so-called corporate social responsibility obligations and more about “share value”.

“Shared value is embodied in the way business operates. It makes sense from a business perspective but also creates social and environmental good. It is very different from CSR,’’ she says.

Now John Durkan wants SecondBite to look to a broader range of products beyond fresh produce.

“We could expand the amount of products that are in our stores. We are working through some trials on how we might do that because not every product is right for SecondBite. It has to be safe as well as healthy,’’ he said.

“We might think about what services we might be able to provide to local communities. There is a whole raft of SecondBite vehicles in many communities that create a means.’’

And he agreed that the involvement of corporate Australia in food rescue was more than business simply paying heed to corporate social responsibility.

“This is deeper than CSR. This is grassroots. (For Coles) this is every store, every day, people knowing they are doing something good. CSR tends to be at a macro level,’’ he says.