How food truck turned social housing around with free food
MELBOURNE: There is no such thing as an intractable problem, only a lack of imagination and will.
OzHarvest’s bright yellow trucks make a beeline to Kirribilli twice a week. Greenway social housing welcomes deliveries of fresh food from the charity and residents in the towers have benefited greatly.
Bryce Gunn, President of Greenway Tenants Group, noticed a change in the estate when the free food first started being delivered. There used to be a lot of fights and drunkenness but this quickly dampened down.
“Within the first three months we notice a change in behaviour and the only thing that happened was we brought in more food,” Mr Gunn said.
“They were putting food in their stomach instead of spending money on alcohol. It made a marked difference.”
Food is collected from local restaurants and supermarkets and delivered directly to Greenway on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. The food is organised by volunteers and it is distributed to the residents.
Every delivery is different and it is usually a mix of fruit, vegetables, both cooked and fresh meat, milk and bread. The volunteers provide hot lunches every Tuesday with the OzHarvest food cooked in the Greenway community kitchen and every day they hand out sandwiches and meat pies.
“I’m sure many residents in Greenway would have a lot worse health if they didn’t get the contributions,” Mr Gunn said.
OzHarvest was founded 15 years ago by Ronni Khan who noticed a lot of food was going to waste in the hospitality industry. Greenway is one of the 1300 charitable agencies it delivers to across Australia free of charge.
“It provides fresh and nutritious food that they might not be able to afford,” OzHarvest spokeswoman Fiona Nearn said.
“We focus on supplying a wide range of fresh and nutritious ingredients. We try to encourage a healthy diet.
“Funds are always needed so we can rescue more food and treat more hungry people.”
