Push to get food to needy grows
Food charity SecondBite is transforming the way it delivers meals and groceries to the nation’s needy through the coronavirus crisis.
The Coles and Matt Preston-backed food charity SecondBite is transforming the way it delivers meals to the nation’s needy through the coronavirus crisis after striking an alliance with Philippines food conglomerate Monde Nissin and securing the support of former ANZ chairman Charles Goode.
In the past five weeks Coles has donated around $3.3m in food and grocery essentials to SecondBite to help Australians who are facing hardship as a result of coronavirus.
It follows a pledge last month by the retailing giant’s CEO Steven Cain to provide SecondBite and Foodbank with extra groceries to the retail value of $1m a week during the pandemic.
That food is now going straight to Monde Nissin — which owns the food brands Nudie, Peckish, Wattle Valley and Black Swan — in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia where it is sorted and distributed to the needy through third-party carriers.
“Monde has the teams and vehicles going to regional areas and we are piggybacking off that. We will always work with Coles on that individual service for communities. But now there is a secondary piece that travels with that, which is this third-party delivery model,’’ said SecondBite chief executive Jim Mullan.
“This has got to represent better bang for buck for both the public dollar and the philanthropic dollar than the way we currently do it.”
SecondBite board member Sam Schachna sold his family’s food business to Monde Nissin five years ago.
SecondBite’s move to use a third-party logistics model has only been made possible by a donation of $250,000 from Charles and Cornelia Goode.
“They gave us $250,000 to test the new logistics model. The amount of food we brought in with that budget compared to before was like night and day,” Mr Mullan said.
SecondBite is chaired by former BHP executive David Williamson, who is the deputy chairman of Flagstaff Partners, the corporate advisory group chaired by Mr Goode.
“We were pleased to assist SecondBite, a great organisation recycling food that would otherwise go to waste to those in need,” Mr Goode said.
“We assisted them to develop a managerial capability to create a transformational commercial relationship with the trucking industry for the efficient movement of food.”
SecondBite was founded more than a decade ago by PPB Advisory chairman and former Victorian Liberal Party president Ian Carson and his wife, Simone. Mrs Carson remains on the board. Other directors include celebrity chef Matt Preston and corporate lawyer Flavia Gobbo.
Mr Mullan said the response from the corporate sector to support the charity during the crisis had been extraordinary.
But he said the greatest challenge remained servicing the nation’s regional and remote areas.
“They usually sit within the IGA, Metcash local convenience store arrangements.
“So we are looking at who is already making that regional run, and then on a state-by-state basis figuring out who our potential third-party logistics partners are and having the conversations with them (to use their fleets),” Mr Mullan said.
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