Off-Road: OzHarvest
In Off-Road, we interview people who use cars, vans and trucks to run mobile businesses. We meet people with great ideas: from laundries that make a difference to vintage clothing stores, food trucks, and more.Social enterprise founder Ronni Khan started OzHarvest as a Sydney-based food rescue service in 2004 with one van. Over the last decade, they’ve expanded into a supermarket, food truck, an education program, and now have an international presence across five continents as well as a fleet of bright yellow vans.
The team has big ambitions to tackle food insecurity: in collaboration with the government and key stakeholders, aiming to halve food waste nationally by 2030.
We chatted to Ronni about building community, how passion is contagious and punching above your weight for the greater good.
OzHarvest was the first Australian organisation to rescue perishable excess food. What was the attitude towards food waste and how it affects vulnerable people back then?
When I first started rescuing food back in 2004, no one thought it was possible but everyone thought it was a great idea. There was very little awareness about the amount of food being wasted. Even I had no idea that it was a global issue, I just saw lots of good food going to waste from my events and knew there were people going hungry, so decided to do something about it.
Fifteen years later, OzHarvest has delivered over 125 million meals, saved 40,000 tonnes of food from ending up in landfill and supports many vulnerable people by delivering fresh, nutritious food to over 1300 charities.
What was the process of finding, preparing and getting the van ready to go out on the road?
I started OzHarvest with seed funding from the Macquarie Foundation, an office and a refrigerated van from Goodman and a big dream! In the first month we delivered 4000 meals. I still remember handing over the first crate of food to a homeless refuge in Sydney.
OzHarvest has come a long way since then and now has a fleet of 57 bright yellow vans that are out and about in communities across Australia every day.
Starting an OzHarvest food truck was a pipe dream back in the day for you. What have you learned through the challenges and triumphs of setting up the operation?
I always knew we would have a food truck, it just took a few years to get one! The OzHarvest Food Truck can be hired by corporate or private events and it serves delicious zero-waste inspired food. It's a hit wherever it goes.
The revenue raised from private bookings, allows the food truck to feed a hot lunch to a community in need at least once a week.
There are always a few logistical challenges with projects like this, but once we found an amazing chef to help run it, everything else came together!
The Food Truck has catered many events all over Sydney and always receives great feedback. One excited customer told our chef that it was the best mushroom burger she’d ever tasted, and she’d been a vegetarian for 20 years!
Who were the earliest adopters of OzHarvest and what were they like to work with?
OzHarvest works with a network of 3500 food donors, including supermarkets, restaurants, cafes, delis, food businesses, manufacturers, farmers, airports and corporate caterers, to make sure quality surplus food is rescued and not sent to landfill.
Thanks to OzHarvest, these business save money by not paying waste fees and ensure that good food goes to feed hungry people.
So even from the early days when many small businesses around town were thrilled to be able to do something positive, people were keen to participate and be part of the solution as it’s a win-win situation!
How big was the in-house support team when you first started and how has it grown since?
In the beginning it was just me and a few passionate volunteers who shared my vision for a better world. Now we have nearly 200 paid staff and a phenomenal ‘yellow army’ of volunteers who help us punch well above our weight.
I always say OzHarvest is a magnet for magnificent people and to this day, we continue to attract great people from everywhere. Surround yourself with passionate people as passion is always contagious.
What’s the best thing about your job at OzHarvest and what are you most proud of achieving?
The best thing is knowing that every day we are making a difference to the lives of so many people. I love watching our Nourish students grow, thrive and finally graduate with their Certificate 2 in Hospitality.
Recently, a parent of one of the students told me that after leaving and dropping out of many schools, their son had finally found an educational opportunity through the Nourish program, which made him feel accomplished.
To see a young man reach his potential and watch his parents brim with pride, knowing that I have helped in some way to make that happen, are incredibly special moments.
Similarly, I’m always moved when I see the joy on people's faces as their eyes light up when the OzHarvest van arrives to deliver food—whether it's a homeless man, or a woman who's been living for months in a refuge, or a child who does not have the luxury of eating a bowl of cereal for breakfast—is an extremely humbling experience.
My advice is just find what makes you happy and add doing good to that.
You can find out more info on OzHarvest here.
Related: Off-Road: The origins of Beatbox Kitchen and Australia's food truck scene
Related: Off-Road: Night Fix
Related: Off-Road: Orange Sky Laundry
Tags
Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
