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Hunger not just an issue in developing world

On a cold, damp and dreary morning, Australian Alex Hemmer rose from his Western Sydney home, not with angst, but with hope he will bring joy and light to another person's life in a world beset by hunger.

"Hello good morning this is Alex from OzHarvest," Hemmer told a potential donor as he's driving to the first food rescue in the early hours of a damp, winter morning.

Hemmer is a food rescuer for Australian charity OzHarvest. OzHarvest acts as an intermediary, picking up and delivering donated excess food from over 2,000 cafes, bakeries and supermarkets to more than 800 charities across Australia that help the nation's most needy.

"I don't have anything for you sorry," the lady on the other end of the phone said.

"Nothing today? No worries we'll see you next week," Hemmer responded as he continued to drive his route through Sydney's inner-city suburbs.

OzHarvest and their 29 bumblebee yellow vans across Australia are on a mission with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to combat food waste as hunger is still the most urgent developmental challenges facing the globe.

The FAO estimates 1.3 billion tonnes of food, or one-third of global food production, is either wasted or lost each year, yet recovering just half of that could feed the world alone.

Australians themselves throw out up to 10 billion Australian dollars (7.49 billion U.S. dollars) worth of produce annually, but the country's disadvantaged still go hungry.

"Enough food is produced in Australia to feed 60 million people, (but) at the same time two million people rely on food relief," OzHarvest marketing chief Louise Tran said. "Those statistics don't really add up."

AUSSIES ARE GENEROUS PEOPLE

Australians however are a very generous people, more often than not trying to help out those desperately in need.

"It's everything to a lot of these (disadvantaged) people," Hemmer said, describing the moment the van arrives stuffed full of delicious goodies to needy charities.

"They see all the interesting things and wonderful food that we collect ... and (it) makes a difference to their bottom line.

"They don't have to go out and buy any food, so they can contribute (the saved money) to other facilities and programs that they need to run."

While it's true 25 percent of OzHarvest's daily pickups won't have produce, they'll get a ring to pick up food from the most unusual of places, such as a photography studio that's just taken photographs of a new line of McDonald's chicken burgers.

"We have so much leftover food after the shoots that it would just go to waste," Danielle Chloe, photographer and studio manager at The Orchard Studio in Sydney's north, told Xinhua when the bumblebee yellow van stopped by rescue the waste.

Unfortunately for food photographers like The Orchard Studio, "it's the nature of the beast" that there is a lot of wastage when working with global fast-food companies. Food stylists unfortunately need a large portion to select the "right product" so consumers will be more enticed to part ways with their hard earned cash.

"We've tried to do as much as we can here (to minimize waste), like we compost everything that can be composted, (and) we do donate where we can," Chloe said, adding the OzHarvest guys do come "straight away" when they call for a pickup, usually twice a month.

STANDARDS DO APPLY

But OzHarvest will not take just any food, applying strict standards to ensure it's safe to eat.

A bakery trying to give away loafs of bread? Forget about it, Hemmer said, as there is only so much bread a charity will take despite the high supply. The type of bread does matter as well, and bakeries just don't make the cut.

"You can have the most beautiful tasting bread in the world, but they'll still take the white sliced, mass produced bread because that's all (the charity's clients) know," Hemmer said.

This, and other nutritional issues forced the charity to start a food education program called NEST, where OzHarvest volunteers teach Australia's disadvantaged how to cook and get the most out of the high-quality donated produce, further aiding the rehabilitation of those in hospices.

"Most of these people that we give food to, they've been discarded by society," Hemmer said.

"Most people don't give a crap about them because they're drug addicted or because they come from a low socio-economic background, and they've never had anybody actually care about them at all.

"To have somebody contribute something positive to their lives, and then they choose to go and contribute to somebody else's life by being friendly, or more positive to them, then that definitely helps."

A DELICIOUS TALLY

At each collection point throughout the daily journey, Hemmer estimates the amount of food waste he's rescued at each location, recording it into the company's app so home base knows how much produce has been picked up, but also delivered.

This gives benefits both ways.

"That way we can know if some donors are getting a bit light on, or whether they're giving the right quantities, or type of food, so we can tailor our runs to suit," Hemmer said.

The statistics are also provided to each company that donates, so they themselves can implement policy to reduce food wastage, such as Australian supermarket Harris Farm that now sells less desirable produce at a discount.

The statistics also give an insight into how many meals have been given out to charities, a crucial piece of transparency.

While the bumblebee yellow vans and fuel is generously donated by key commercial partners, the charity still requires significant monetary donations to keep in operation.

For the year to June 30, 2015, OzHarvest received 6.45 million Australian dollars (4.83 million U.S. dollars) through donations and cookbook sales, while forking out 5.81 million Australian dollars (4.35 million U.S. dollars) through payroll and expenses. Crucially though, that allowed the charity to deliver just over 11 million meals to those most in need, or approximately two meals per Australian dollar raised.

"This gives us the opportunity to maybe relocate the money that we would normally (use) for fresh fruit and vegetables, and things like that, to possibly other things the clients may need," Dennys Vergara, a case manager at Foundation House in inner Sydney, told Xinhua as Hemmer made his drop offs at the end of the day.

Foundation House is a drug, alcohol and rehabilitation clinic paid for entirely by the militant Construction, Forestry, Mining and Engineering Union (CFMEU), so saving the estimated 400 Australian dollars (300 U.S. dollars) per week in food is paramount.

At the end of each week, the rehabilitation clinic takes the some 16 persons it is treating on an outdoor outing, most likely to a park, local cinema or bowling alley.

"It just reminds the guys that there is life out there after (rehabilitation)," Vergara said.

"Normally we would take the clients for a walk through the park, or something like that, (but) for a day like today - as you can see it's raining - we would have to find some money and take them to an indoor event," he said.

"If we don't get (OzHarvest), then maybe they don't get (the indoor event)" that's part of their rehabilitation."




 

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