By Charlene Gatt
IT’S the project that makes the most of unwanted fruit and vegetables.
Foodbank Victoria is calling on Maribyrnong City Council to be the first metropolitan municipality to pilot the Street Harvest program, which aims to increase the availability of fresh food for emergency food relief.
Under the program, volunteers door knock households asking them to donate any fruit or vegetables in their gardens that they don’t use.
The volunteers then collect the excess fruit and vegetables and redistribute it locally among the community to those in need via emergency relief agencies.
The program has been running in Wodonga since 2009, with more than 8000 kilograms of food donated from 16 registered houses and other locations within nine months.
“All the benefit we had (in Wodonga) we believe we can achieve here in Maribyrnong,” Foodbank Victoria CEO Ric Benjamin told the council at a recent Community Access and Strategic Planning meeting.
“This does not have to be a big program to have a big response in terms of produce. It’s about empowering the community to take responsibility.”
In Wodonga, the program is jointly funded by the council and VicHealth.
Mr Benjamin said Street Harvest was a low-cost model because it was volunteer-based and fed into other community programs, such as community gardens and kitchens.
Maribyrnong City Council has commissioned a report into the feasibility of the Street Harvest project in the municipality.
