Losing our Cooking for a Cause program in March was devastating as not only was this a valuable revenue stream for OzHarvest, but corporate teams would produce more than 70,000 cooked meals a year for our charity agencies.

With food relief at an all-time high, the OzHarvest kitchens are in daily use and our team of chefs are producing heart-warming, healthy meals to help charities meet the ever-increasing demand. But still more is needed.

Our wonderful friends in the hospitality industry have rallied to help OzHarvest and have turned their closed kitchens into production centers to help feed families who are now facing food insecurity for the first time. 

The Parliamentary Kitchens in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia are also putting their kitchen teams to good use in quieter times, with 2,500 meals made a week in NSW alone. The SA kitchen is cooking up soups, vegetarian dishes, pasta and curries, which OzHarvest collect twice a week and distribute to local crisis care accommodation. The kitchen team at Adelaide Oval will be preparing and cooking 1,000 meals a week from OzHarvest’s rescued food, our drivers will be delivering these meals to local charities

The staff at Canva have also come on board, donating their staff meal allowance to the Canva kitchen to cook 1,000 meals for OzHarvest a week. Newtown’s Bella Brutta are providing 50 pizzas a week that are going directly to Newtown Mission. Lendlease have generously funded their social enterprise, The Pure Collective, based in their Barangaroo headquarters in Sydney, to deliver 4,000 meals to more than eight OzHarvest Sydney CBD charity partners across April and May.

The cooked meals are being delivered to charity agencies in addition to regular deliveries of fresh produce. The impact of COVID-19 has meant many charities have changed their usual operations, especially those who previously served a cooked community meal to now making home deliveries or food hampers for collection.  

In Sydney, 3,500 cooked meals will be distributed directly to hotels that are providing crisis accommodation to rough sleepers, at risk youth, and those fleeing domestic violence as part of a new agreement with Family and Community Services.

We are deeply grateful to the continuous offers of support from the hospitality industry to help us provide food relief to those who need it most. 

If you would like to join us, and become an Hospitalty Hero – please get in touch with Beth Fitzpatrick – [email protected]

Please note, during COVID-19 OzHarvest are currently experiencing a huge volume of calls. The best way to reach our amazing Food Rescue teams is via the contacts below, even for those urgent pick up/delivery requests. We’ll get back to you asap. Thanks so much.

ADELAIDE – [email protected]
BRISBANE – [email protected]
CANBERRA – [email protected]
CAIRNS – [email protected]
GOLD COAST – [email protected]
MELBOURNE – [email protected]
NEWCASTLE – [email protected]
PERTH – [email protected]
SYDNEY – [email protected]
SUNSHINE COAST: [email protected]