Getting fruit and vegetables to those in need

The ever-increasing need in our communities to provide food relief is a daily challenge for organisations such as Foodbank, but a collaborative approach between growers and the organisation makes the process that much more easy, and timely.

Tayla Field is Foodbank Australia’s national program manager for agriculture, and her role is to work with Foodbank’s national produce donors to help deliver more fruit and vegetables to Foodbank via various structured supply and donation programs. Tayla also completed an internship at Hort Innovation in 2015.

Foodbank Australia coordinates procurement of in-demand produce for state members, manages the national donor and national food programs, undertakes federal government advocacy and conducts research and analysis at a national level to help raise awareness. Tayla says that Foodbank is the ‘pantry for the charity sector’.

At last count, Foodbank provided food and groceries to 2,625 registered charities and provided food for school breakfast programs to around 3,000 schools around the country, making it the largest food relief organisation in Australia. In 2022, Foodbank sourced 45.6 million kilograms of product, equating to 82 million meals.

Meeting the demand and supply logistics

As families feel the pinch, often the first thing that is taken out of the supermarket trolley is protein, followed by fruit and vegetables. As a consequence, demand for fresh produce for the fridge, or supplies to make value-add products such as pasta sauce is rising.

“There is plenty of opportunity for fruit and vegetables that are surplus, out of-spec, or nearing the minimum acceptance date for the retailers. A lot of our donors support us directly from the farm. Our challenge is more around consistency of supply. For example, bananas are a staple part of the food for the school breakfast program, but if they are not available, our members need to find other options to fill that gap.”

For growers that supply ALDI and Woolworths, an initiative advocated by Foodbank is via the HarvestMark system used by the supermarkets to accept – or reject – produce. In the event that produce is rejected, the grower can opt for the produce to be donated to Foodbank, rather than being collected or sent to landfill. Foodbank then collects the produce from the distribution centres alongside other produce that is to be donated. Foodbank has also received authorisation from the retailers for suppliers to donate packaged private label products to Foodbank, to avoid growers having to remove product from packaging and or send it to landfill.

A common scenario, said Tayla, is for collection directly from farm, to minimise the transit and handling of product from farm to families.

“There are a few different ways we can work with growers to pick up donated produce off-farm. The first is ad hoc donations, where a grower has surplus and or non-spec stock, that is still fit for us but they can’t find a buyer or home for it. We can usually find a home for it and will work with the grower to find a simple solution for them.

“There are also seasonal opportunities, where a grower may have surplus supply of product or non-spec produce throughout the season that can be donated to Foodbank. In this instance, we can plan ahead on how to best use the resource and work out the logistics ahead of time.

“We can work with growers to have Hat bins and or CHEP bins available on farm at the start or throughout a season, so product can be loaded straight into bins allocated to Foodbank from the packing line or harvest. They can let us know a few days ahead of time when pick up is available and transport can be arranged.”

“One of the bigger challenges is actually around freight as it is one of the biggest costs for the donation process. If the grower has contracts in place with a transport company, it can be easier to piggyback on that. We do have partner freight companies that will do pro-bono pickups for  Foodbank, and we also have some resources to pay for the freight.”

Get in touch and donate

Tayla recognises that each grower has a unique set of circumstances to overcome to become a donor directly from-farm but sees that increasing demand by families will require extra resources.

“I want to make the process of donation as simple and rewarding as possible for the grower,” she said. “I encourage growers to get in touch with me or their State Foodbanks, to start the conversation, about how much they feel comfortable with donating, whether it is a seasonal surplus or something more long term.

“We can have a chat about how often it is picked up, what we can do about transport costs, or alternatively establishing a collaborative partnership for processed goods. Let’s work together to create a calendar for our members and agencies that shows what produce is coming in and when.”

This case study was developed by AUSVEG.