Daniel Parsons-Jones, Foodbank Victoria, 4 million facing food insecurity

Get the inside story on food security in Australia, in this interview with the donation coordinator for Foodbank Victoria, Victoria's oldest and largest food relief organisation, helping over 710,000 Australian's a month - https://www.foodbank.org.au/

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Transcript

- Philip Bateman from The Interview, down here in Yarraville with Daniel Parsons Jones, who's the Food Donor Coordinator for Food Bank Victoria. Daniel, Food Bank, we're standing in this massive warehouse, what's going on here? Here we are Victoria's oldest and largest food relief organisation. We collect food from across the food industry, from individuals right back to the farm, from the supermarkets and the manufacturers and the DCs, everywhere and then we distribute it out to the charity sector.

- Right. I heard some amazing figures of 710 thousand Australians a month are being helped by Food Bank nationally, 26% of those are under 19 and apparently there's four million Australians experiencing food insecurity. Yeah, every year, four million Australians will experience food insecurity. And that's not necessarily all the time. It's not people who are day-to-day going without meals, but throughout the year, will experience some level of food insecurity.

- Yeah. What volume of food produce are we seeing come through these door? Through these doors here? Upwards of the 10 million kilo, nine million kilo mark. In terms of the number of meals that we're producing, it's somewhere around the 17 million meal mark per year. Just coming through, these doors here in Victoria. There's a Food Bank in every state and territory in Australia. We all work as part of a national network and those kind of numbers are replicated across the country.

- Wow! Where are you getting all your food from? We get it from everywhere. We get it from the retailers, from the manufacturers, from the farms, from the fresh produce markets. We get it even down to individuals who feel like donating, they maybe have a pantry full that they can't get rid of. From hundreds of pallets, down to the box of cans. We need it all. We appreciate it all. And we try and get across the entire food industry. Is there a size limitation? If I rock up with a can of beans, or do you need somebody to say here's a, at what point do people make the decision that okay this food is good for Food Bank and not good for retail?

- If you rock up with a can of beans, we'll be very thankful. Absolutely. We're working all the time to get further and further down the supply chain. Before it hits the supermarket, before it hits the distribution centre for the supermarket, or when it's there, to make sure that whenever there's food that might not be fit for sale, but it's still fit for purpose, then we can bring it in. For people out there with restaurants and food cooperatives and farmers etc what are you looking for from them? What areas have you not tapped that you see there's potential growth? And when I say growth, I mean that there's potentially more chance for people to recognise that this is a viable way to, essentially if it doesn't come here, it's considered a waste product. Is that fair to say?

- Absolutely, our only competition is the bin. So when we bring in a donation, it's probably going to have landed in landfill, instead of coming here. Every time we bring it in, we probably rescued it from what would be landfill. In terms of what we're targeting, we're always targeting fresh healthy food. Healthy food for all, that's absolutely what we're focused on. Items like rice and pasta, longer-life products like that are great. We've got a big focus on getting fresh fruit and veggies. A lot of what we do is actually fresh fruit and vegetables. People think Food Bank, they think this kind of warehouse behind us. They think canned goods and stuff like that, but just behind all those ambient racks, we've got a big old fridge and a big old freezer, so we can accept donations of chilled and frozen products, fresh products, all that kind of stuff. How can we get specific here? How does somebody intercept the waste stream, to get the contents to you? If I'm sitting here watching this, how do I know when to pick up the phone and call you? Pick up the phone and call anyway. Even if you've got a question. It's better that you ask us the question, than you feel afraid to ask it, because you might think it's a silly question. I would much rather have 10 silly questions, than no questions at all. If you've got some kind of position in a food manufacturer, or with a farmer, if you feel that you might have access to some level of food that would be useful to the community, then yes get in contact with us.

- All right, sounds like a really good catch all. If there was one thing you wanted people to know about Food Bank, what would you tell them? Oh that's tough. First thing that comes to mind. First things that come to mind, myself as someone who's food in, I would say the first thing that I want people to know, is that we can probably take more types and different types of donations than you expect we can. It's always a great reminder to know where it goes, that food product. It goes to charities that work with, Kitchens, or pantries, or various types of places, hampers and things like that. We've got a big variety of charities that we work with. We can probably take a greater variety of donations than most people would expect. If there's one thing you wanted people in the world to know about hunger in Australia, what would you tell them?

- That it's not a problem, people they always ask us about helping the homeless, people who are out on the street. That's something that we do and that's something that we do help, but it's not people who are on the street, it's people who are in your street. It's four million Australians. These aren't issues that speak to a very small percentage of our country. It is across country. It is across economic divides. It is across social divides. It's everywhere. And it might not be you, it might not be someone you know And it might not be you, it might not be someone you know is suffering from food insecurity, but probably someone you know has suffered from it this year.

- Thank you so much for your work and your time.

- No worries, thank you.