Foodbank WA
Annual Report
2022

We continued to expand our supplier base of farmers, fresh producers, retailers, manufacturers and across the entire food supply chain, to ensure surplus or imperfect food and groceries are saved from landfill and instead donated. Goods donated to us are distributed to people in need of food relief.

Food donations from Mt Barker make a difference

Mt Barker Chicken donates a range of products to help provide a vital source of protein to vulnerable Western Australians. Mt Barker has donated a total of 47,466kg of chicken. This translates to approximately two to five pallets of products a month. Incredibly, approximately 50% of our total chicken supply is provided in this way.

Our Community Kitchen Chef Grant uses the chicken in a wide and wonderful variety of popular and nutritious meals. These include pizzas, BBQ chicken and bacon, chicken curry, chicken tikka curry, Thai chicken curry or spaghetti carbonara.

Read more about how Mt Barker Chickens are supporting us

New partnership with Richgro gives food waste another life

In 2022 we partnered with Richgro who share our commitment to sustainability and vision to work towards a zero-carbon footprint.

Richgro takes our unusable or not fit-for-consumption fruit, vegetables and dairy products and turns them into valuable fertilisers. We delivered 20,328kg of food waste to Richgro, saving it from landfill. This initiative is still in its early stages but we look to grow the partnership and see bigger environmental impacts ahead.

Find out more about our partnership with Richgro

A special thanks to our major food donors

We are grateful to our local and national food donors who remain committed to reducing hunger and food waste by donating their surplus stock to us.

While feeding Western Australians in need addresses the immediate issue, our education programs aim to offer a pathway out of poverty.

Developed and facilitated by university qualified nutritionists and dietitians, these evidenced-based programs empower participants with the knowledge and skills to make healthy food choices for sustained healthy lifestyles. This has a ripple effect into reducing the risk of a number of preventable medical conditions.

We have a range of programs across the lifecycle for school children, youth, parents with children 0-5 years, adults and people with disability.

Associate Professor Christina Pollard joins the “Purple Shirt Ladies” in the Pilbara

When the opportunity came up for Foodbank WA Board member Associate Professor Christina Pollard to travel to remote Pilbara communities with us, she jumped at the chance.

We drove many hours on rough dirt roads to reach remote communities. The visits can also be a bumpy ride emotionally, as we witness both beauty and struggle side by side.

“Because Foodbank WA has been visiting these communities for 11 years, we have built strong relationships within the communities. The children remember the team and what they have learned in previous years. Although we only visit these remote communities once a year, they remember the team. So it’s nice to see how excited people are when the ‘purple shirt ladies’ arrive.”

Read more about Christina’s experience

Teaching school students how to make healthy food choices

We believe teaching kids about food from an early age can help them make healthy choices for life. Our Food Sensations® for Schools program offers interactive hands-on nutrition sessions before students learn how to cook age-appropriate easy and healthy meals. 3,295 students participated in 162 sessions in 60 schools across Perth, Wheatbelt, Pilbara, Peel, Great Southern and the Midwest regions. 

“In May we travelled 900km to the Midwest to deliver our sessions to 180 students in five days. Regional schools don’t always get the same opportunities as metro schools, so we aim to visit schools in each region every year. 

Our sessions are tailored to each year group and students learnt about important nutrition information including the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, sugar in drinks, homemade versus takeaway, knife safety, and hygiene in the kitchen through interactive and fun lessons.

Students then cooked up a storm, using recipes taken from our Best of Healthy Recipes for All, and Let’s Cook #2 recipe books (get your own copies at SuperheroFoodsHQ). The students loved all the delicious and healthy dishes they made.”

Thank you to the Departments of Education and Primary Industries and Regional Development for their ongoing support of the program, and to the Department of Health for their support in previous years.

Using Superhero Foods® resources to inspire students

They may look like Everyday Foods but they are Superhero Foods in disguise.

Superhero Foods promotes healthy eating and cooking for kids in a fun and engaging way. They capture children’s attention using a suite of nutrition education resources including recipe booklets, posters, story and activity books, healthy eating collectables and a range of culturally appropriate food literacy resources for Aboriginal children.

We were excited to launch a webapp for kids that explores Healthy Town and all your favourite Superhero Foods characters. We are thankful for the University of Western Australia’s volunteer organisation Coders for Causes for their development support.

Our Superhero Foods resources continue to be popular with teachers, health professionals, parents and of course kids. This year we experienced significant demand for our resources with 11% growth in users and 143% more orders. Our new Superhero Foods kid’s aprons also proved very popular.

We partner and collaborate with child focused organisations to help spread the healthy eating messages including the Literature Centre, Awesome Arts, Gymnastics WA and the Stephen Michael Foundation. We provided nutrition expertise together with Superhero Foods resources and messages to complement Healthway’s Go for 2&5® message.

“I recently started home schooling my children and want to teach them about nutrition and health. Now as an adult there is loads of information about this subject, however I needed something that I was able to teach them at their level. I was blown away by the information you have, so thank you for the hard work that you put in to teach children about the importance of nutrition and health.”

Testimonial from a Superhero Foods HQ website user

Thank you to Healthway for the support of the initiative.

Teaching how to plan, prepare and cook healthy meals on a budget

Helping Western Australians learn how to plan, prepare and cook healthy meals on a budget is a passion of ours. Our Food Sensations® for Adults program hosted 356 sessions both in person and online to 924 participants. 

Watch how this program inspired Ai Lin’s love of vegetables

Funding for this program ended this year. We are thankful for the support of the Department of Health, Western Australia for the past six years which has seen over 6,800 participants through the program. 

Delivering nutrition education in Fremantle

This year we opened The Healthy Eating Hub, a purpose-built training kitchen and community space in the heart of Fremantle. This working space is a home for our nutrition education programs servicing the Fremantle and surrounding community. We are thankful to the support of Hawaiian for the program.

Vital nutrition sessions for parents with young children

The first five years of our children’s lives are vital for developing healthy eating habits. Our Food Sensations® for Parents program helps guide parents to plan, prepare and cook healthy meals for the whole family on a budget.

This year we delivered 46 sessions both in person and online to 87 parents through nine partner organisations in Perth and the Midwest. We also trained 21 health professionals to deliver the program. 

“Before I knew, I was trying to put all the healthy stuff on their plates and then I was terrified that drama was going to start at dinner. The program teaches us the different ages and it’s their choice when, what, how all that kind of stuff… It taught us methods where it makes you more confident to be able to communicate with the kids and encourage the kids” 

Parent participant with 6 children.

This program makes a significant difference in changing behaviours of attending families. 47.8% of parents reported an increase in vegetable intake for themselves and 46.4% for their children. 71% of parents improved in 12 food literacy behaviours and confidence and 77% improved in six of 10 positive parenting feeding practices. 

Funding for this program ended this year. We are thankful for the support of Healthway for the past three and a half years. 

We are grateful to Telethon for announcing their support of maintaining parent education with our Food Sensations® for Children program commencing July 2022.  

New program tailored to people with disability

This year we introduced a new program, Healthy Food For All Abilities, for people with disability, especially those transitioning to independent living or supported accommodation.

“I have enjoyed all the recipes we have cooked together. I also like the way they make me feel, I don’t feel lethargic after eating them and the recipes we cook don’t have any of the bad stuff in them – sugar, fat or salt. I now have a better understanding of nutrition and feel able to make better choices to avoid eating too much sugar, fat and salt.”

Participant

Since February 2022, we delivered 12 sessions to 36 individuals. We are thankful for the Department of Communities for the support of this program.

Educating Western Australians in the Pilbara

Through our commitment in the Pilbara, we supported 14 schools with our School Breakfast Program and delivered our Food Sensations for Schools program to 551 students.

We also delivered our Fuel Your Future program to 214 youth participants, Food Sensations for Parents to 69 participants as well as 10 education training sessions to a range of local stakeholders, including WA Country Health Service. We participated in 10 community events with 243 community members attending.

“I can confidently tell you that both the students and I enjoyed your visit a great deal. Later in the week the students were still relaying stories about how they cooked lunch for the whole school. I believe that the best part of the Food Sensations for Schools session was that the students were fully engaged in the cooking of the dishes. I particularly liked the way that correct handling of knives was demonstrated and then the students were permitted to cut up the vegetables. This made them feel very important and increased their confidence levels which I know will help transfer this skill to their homes.”

This year we created a number of resources to support our programs including posters for parents, kid’s aprons featuring artwork by a local artist at Martumili and recipe cards developed by local Pilbara students.

We are thankful to BHP who have supported this program for over 11 years.

Shirley’s story

Shirley is the first person to reach our 25 years of service milestone. When Shirley first set foot at our very first warehouse in Belmont, little did she know she would spend the next 25 years volunteering with us.

Shirley has seen many changes over years, from our humble beginnings which included just 360sqm of workshop and office space combined, to our next location in Welshpool, right through to our 6,000sqm facility at Perth Airport.

“It makes me happy to be able to give back to an organisation which gives people a chance to get back on their feet in tough times. There is a lot of joy in being even a small part of helping others.

I like to help people in need. Life in general can be very tough for a lot of people, especially now everything’s getting so expensive.”

Volunteers

Volunteers play a central role in powering our purpose. Each and every day, our volunteers give their precious time and energy to help us help those who are doing it tough, always with big smiles on their faces.

More than 200 regular and 1,600 corporate volunteers assisted us this financial year. As struggle and uncertainly surrounded us this year, especially when the full impact of COVID was felt in WA, our volunteers and staff pulled together to ensure we could provide food relief and support to those who needed it most.

National Volunteer Week held in May was a wonderful opportunity for us to celebrate and recognise the vital work of our amazing volunteers and to say thank you. Our thanks to Herbert Smith Freehills and Dome Cafes for their support of the celebrations.

This year we implemented a volunteer management system, Better Impact, to improve our communication and inductions for new volunteers as well as better track the contribution and time our volunteers give.

Thank you to our dedicated volunteers who achieved service milestones this year:

10 year: Dave Catto, Dawn Jones

25 year: Shirley Walker

Thank you. We couldn’t do what we do without you. 

Our People

Foodbank WA is a diverse and professional organisation employing 80 staff across Western Australia.

Peter Mansell, D. John Carlson, Ian Rakich, Paul Branston, Dr Christina Pollard (L-R). Not pictured Vanessa Torres, Clint Johnson, Patsy Mitchell

Thank you to our Board of Directors for their strategic guidance and governance throughout the year.

Rene Wang, Kate O’Hara, Moira Aynsley, David Warren, Steve Martin (back), Fran Ferreira, Dr Roslyn Giglia, Ian de Nazareth (front)

Thank you to our leadership team for their passion, commitment and dedication to meeting our purpose.

We would especially like to acknowledge the long-serving staff who reached service milestones this year:

10 year: Rene Wang, Jennifer Burnett

20 year: Keith Ryniker

Thank you. We couldn’t do what we do without you. 

Work health, safety and environment

Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of staff and volunteers is a high priority. We are committed to our compliance to the WHS Act 2020 holding consultations and training held to our Board, staff and volunteers. In a bold move to ensure the safety of every member of staff and volunteers working in our warehouses, Mobile Foodbanks and shop floors, we provided steel-cap boots at no cost. We also implemented monthly safety meetings with branch managers and safety champions to discuss safety issues. All team meetings commence with a safety share moment.

Professional Development

We are committed to the continual professional development of our staff, ensuring we have the right skills, expertise and engagement to meet our purpose. We are thankful for a partnership with the Australian Institute of Management WA which supports the professional development of our staff.

In addition, we also hosted additional training for staff including Aboriginal cultural awareness, See Me, See You cultural diversity, fire safety and Work Health and Safety Act and awareness training.

Uniting the community to support Western Australians in need

We are incredibly thankful for the Western Australian community and corporate partners who generously give their support. A special mention must go out to our Giving Pantry regular donors whose monthly contributions make a real difference to the Western Australian community.

Our Sound of Hunger campaign created an interactive audio-visual experience to allow people to experience firsthand what hunger sounds like. While this sound ended after a minute, for those living with hunger, it only ends with our help. Listen to the sound at soundofhunger.com.au.

Inspiring our community

Million Meal Challenge

Our relationship with West Coast Eagles went to another level in 2021, announcing the first year of the Million Meal Challenge. For every one dollar donated by footy supporters, Foodbank WA is able to provide two meals. We set our sights on the next few years to raise enough for one million meals. The first year kicked off with a bang, raising over 70,000 meals.

Meal Makers

26 Perth business executives spent a morning with five executive chefs to learn a signature dish and then produced meals in our Community Kitchen. They did this all while raising over 310,000 meals for Western Australians in need. Thank you!

Empty Bowls

A fusion of art, food and fun generates urgent food relief for thousands of Western Australians where this year we raised just over 46,000 meals. Thank you to the event host White Peacock Studios in Glen Forrest.

“We had some very talented pottery artists working on donations. Every pot they create is a unique piece of artwork. Last year many people loved them so much they bought a whole set.”

Give a Feed

In its tenth year, Give A Feed broke their record for the amount of hampers provided in a year with a whopping 3,975 hampers. This brings their total tally to more than 26,000 Christmas hampers distributed since 2011.

Peel Thunder Football Club connecting a region

Peel Thunder Football Club dedicated their Round 9 match to Foodbank Peel to raise financial and food donations to help families struggling in the region. With great action on field and plenty of fun for the kids and whole family, the game attracted an above-average crowd of almost 3,000. The Club went above and beyond to celebrate our Peel volunteers with an invitation to their President’s Luncheon. The event raised more than 5,000 meals for people doing it tough in Mandurah.

Bankwest gives back

We are incredibly thankful for the 313 Bankwest staff who gave 1,878 hours of their time and energy to volunteer with us this year. Their staff also took on the Mega Meal Challenge and prepared an impressive 7,804 meals.

ATCO fuel sponsorship highlighting broad support for food relief and rescue

ATCO Australia generously supported fuel expenses for our two vehicles in Bunbury as part of the ATCO Communities Fund. The South West region is rich with fresh fruit and vegetable produce, with many local growers generously donating fresh food that not only feeds Foodbank Bunbury, but our whole network. This support allowed us to continue our food rescue and food donation collection of 317,000 kilos and contributed to reducing food wastage within the region.

Support for our most basic operational costs provides incredible value in our ability to rescue essential food products that support the most vulnerable communities in each region. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, around 14% of food produced globally is lost between harvest and retail.