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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-03-20 Daily Xml
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OZHARVEST VAN

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:29): My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. Will the minister inform the chamber about the launch of the second OzHarvest van earlier this month?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:29): I thank the honourable member for his most important question and his ongoing interest in recycling. On 9 March I had the pleasure of taking part in the launch of OzHarvest's second van in Adelaide, to be named Buttercup. The addition of Buttercup to the fleet will greatly improve OzHarvest's capacity to collect and deliver unwanted food to organisations preparing meals for those less fortunate in our community.

For those people who do not know, OzHarvest commenced operation originally in Sydney in 2004 as a result of a partnership between entities from the welfare and restaurant sectors. These people realised that something needed to be done about the large amount of food heading into bins whilst people were going hungry. After a number of successful years and support from well known identities like Matt Moran and Bill Granger, OzHarvest was able to expand its operations into Adelaide in 2010. After it received funding from this Labor government of about $60,000, OzHarvest launched its first van, Primrose.

Over the last two years, OzHarvest has been operating in Adelaide. I am advised that 25,000 kilograms of food that was otherwise destined for landfill or compost has been recovered and that 747,000 meals have been provided to people in Adelaide—that is 747,000 meals. I am told that every week around 680 kilograms of food is collected just from the Central Market and the Showground Farmers Market alone.

The Jay Weatherill government has been pleased to support the work of OzHarvest because it provides food and support to those vulnerable members of our community and it also reduces food waste and waste going to landfill. As I said on 9 March, we heard that 54 charitable agencies have been the recipients of OzHarvest food and over 270 donors now provide produce to OzHarvest on a regular basis. These donors range from fine dining restaurants to family-run fruit and vegetable grocers.

It is clear to me that the breadth of support for OzHarvest amongst South Australia's food community is wide and is growing day by day. It also demonstrates their acceptance of the need for healthy, nutritious meals to be provided for those in the community who are not as well off as others such as ourselves. It is also evidence that the food and restaurant community acknowledges that food waste must be reduced. The National Waste Report 2010 estimated that 35 per cent of waste that goes into household bins is food and 21.5 per cent of commercial and industrial waste is food. This means that Australia discards in excess of four million tonnes of food every year.

Whilst OzHarvest will not be able to solve this problem on their own, they are leading the way for other like-minded groups to come up with innovative ways to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. In light of this success over the last two years, Jay Weatherill's government has committed another $67,500 for a second food collection vehicle (as I indicated earlier), named Buttercup. This means another team of volunteers will be able to hit the roads with Primrose and Buttercup and more food and meals will be provided to those less fortunate members of our community.

On behalf of the government, I want to commend everyone at OzHarvest, their staff and their volunteers, and of course everyone from the restaurant and food community who have come on board on this excellent adventure.

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