Most of the food that comes in and out of our warehouse in Long Gully is surplus food rescued from local businesses and organisations. This is good quality food that would have otherwise been thrown away due to over-purchasing, over-producing or a small mistake on the packaging or labelling. We also receive regular and donations from local businesses, such as Don Smallgoods, Hazeldene’s, Tip-Top Bread and Keans Eggs. Sometimes one-off donations from local organisations also come through our shed- these suauly consist off end-of-line products so they rae able to release a new food.
We also purchase some food from local businesses with limited occasional government funding to support specifit events, such as during a natural disaster, e.g. the floods.
The types of businesses we source/rescue from include:
- Supermarkets and food retailers
- Hospitality businesses
- Food manufacturers
- Agricultural businesses and growers
- Melbourne-based food relief organisations
We also receive food from walk-in and Grow a Row, Pick a Branch donations as well as food collected as part of community, school and individual/business Food Drives.
We work closely with our volunteers, food manufacturers, our partners and their staff to make sure the food we rescue and redistribute is suitable for human consumption and meets stringent food safety standards.
Our warehouse is more of a surprise chain than a supply chain – the types of food we have in the warehouse at any given time can vary greatly, this depends on the produce that is in season, business donations and food drives.
