LAUNCHED just four months ago, Food Rescue’s cargo carts initiative is gaining momentum, almost tripling the numbers of volunteers and hatching plans to further expand into West Perth.
The program’s volunteer base has grown from 130 following its launch to its current base of 360 volunteers from 18 organisations.
The volunteers operate in addition to Food Rescue’s vans, and contribute their time to gather unsold food from 24 local cafes with the help of one of Food Rescue’s two cargo carts, with the food then distributed to local community organisations to give to the homeless.
Corporate volunteers have collected around 4,400 kilograms of sandwiches, rolls and wraps from CBD cafes since last November.
Food Rescue manager Julie Broad told Business News that word-of-mouth promotion of the program had proved so effective there were companies and cafes waiting to get involved in runs outside of the CBD.
She said corporates and their employees were keen to be involved in the initiative because they could contribute in a hands-on way to stop unnecessary food wastage.
“I guess that’s where Food Rescue has been so successful, unlike any other food rescue business we are the conduit between rescuing the food that was going to go to landfill, to actually getting it directly to those people that need it,” Ms Broad said.
