Food waste charity redirects locked-down restaurant food to a good cause
15 February 2021 at 10:14 pm
The lockdown is expected to cost over $30 million in food waste
For hospitality venues across Victoria, the five-day snap lockdown couldn’t have landed on a worse weekend.
With many restaurants already prepped and stocked for the influx of Valentine’s Day and Lunar New Year bookings, the estimated cost of food waste from the lockdown is over $30 million.
It’s why food delivery service DoorDash, and food waste charity FareShare have teamed up to redirect fresh food out of landfill and into the mouths of people who need it the most.
During the lockdown period, which is set to end on Wednesday night, DoorDash will be working alongside FareShare to collect and deliver any produce donations from its restaurant partners.
Toni Hetherington, FareShare’s corporate partnerships director, told Pro Bono News that it was heartwarming to see how many restaurants were keen to sign up to the program, even in the face of such hardship.
“While they are understandably giving themselves every chance to recoup some of their costs after purchasing produce for what was expected to be one of the year’s busiest weekends in Melbourne and across Victoria, they don’t want to see the food go to waste and have guaranteed to assess their stocks for donation in coming days,” Hetherington said.
“As heartbreaking as this whole situation is, at least restaurateurs who make a donation will know that the fresh food they have purchased and were unable to use will be enjoyed by people who need it most.”
FareShare uses fresh food that would otherwise go to waste to produce 35,000 meals a week for frontline charities such as the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
Chase Gardner, head of enterprise partnerships at DoorDash Australia, praised the partnership.
“Together with FareShare and our restaurant partners, we hope to save as much fresh food from ending up in landfill as possible,” Gardner said.
DoorDash restaurant partners can donate surplus produce by completing this form. Others can donate by contacting FareShare.
