Amanda Stoker (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In this role, I am lucky enough to work with several volunteer organisations that are dedicated to helping and improving the lives of Queenslanders. Foodbank Queensland and FareShare are two such organisations. Over five million tonnes of food end up in landfill in Australia every year. The typical Australian household throws out between $2,200 and $3,800 worth of groceries every single year, and yet over 710,000 Australians rely on food donations every month. One-quarter of those people are children.

Imagine if all of that wasted food could go to people who are in need in our cities and in our regions. FareShare and Foodbank Queensland hold this same worthy goal. FareShare, Australia's largest charity kitchen, opened a second kitchen last year in Morningside, on the south side of Brisbane. FareShare uses surplus meat and vegetables that are supplied by Foodbank to cook up tasty and nutritious meals. They're ready to eat and they can be reheated without needing access to a full kitchen. It's ideal for Queenslanders who are doing it tough and who otherwise would go hungry.

The member for Bonner, Ross Vasta, and I are proud to support FareShare's good work. We have toured their facility, and they have a really impressive state-of-the-art kitchen. The kitchen has industrial-scale food-processing tools, including 300-litre electric saucepans that can cook 750 meals at once. I've visited FareShare's kitchen a few times now. On the last occasion, I got to roll up my sleeves with young Liberal National Party volunteers to help prepare meals for those who are struggling to put food on the table. It was a really good experience for young LNP members to lend a helping hand and to learn about the challenges that some less fortunate members of our community are facing. FareShare chefs and 410 volunteers put in so much hard work. That day alone, we packed 3,200 meals, most of which went to Yeppoon to assist with the ongoing fire relief efforts.

FareShare has amazing output. Within one year of opening they cooked 1,140,739 meals. That's around 31,000 a week. Last year they cooked 2.6 million meals, and I have no doubt they'll meet their goal of three million a year by 2022. And true to the mantra of 'waste not, want not' FareShare donates its organic waste to Brisbane's environmental organisation, Northey Street City Farm, for use as compost. FareShare's cooked meals are frozen and distributed through Foodbank and other charities, such as soup vans and homeless shelters. Foodbank distributes these meals for free through 280 frontline charity partners which are spread throughout city, suburban and regional Queensland.

FareShare and Foodbank help the homeless, struggling families and older people who are often on their own, as well as disaster-affected Queenslanders. We've heard heartbreaking stories of towns that have been hit hard by drought, bushfire and flood over the last year in the course of debate in this chamber, but FareShare and Foodbank Queensland have acted as lifelines in these difficult times by sending thousands of meals to people struggling to access food all across the state. And they remain on duty to help them even once disasters subside. They do a tremendous job distributing thousands of hampers of non-perishable food and other key supplies through Foodbank's network to bushfire affected regions in New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT, as well as throughout their Queensland network.

One of the best parts of FareShare's work is its focus on social inclusion. The volunteers at FareShare are incredibly dedicated. They treat each other like family. Helping out in their kitchen is a great way for people to make friends. One of the great things they do is help to connect people who have been part of the refugee community or who have recently emerged from a period in prison and have the opportunity to learn some skills and connect with others. I'd encourage anyone who is looking to give back to the community to sign up and bring along a few friends too, to expand their network in our community.

I commend FareShare and Foodbank for their work. I commend the generosity of their donors and encourage others to help FareShare and Foodbank give people in need the gift of a warm meal and a kind chat. It's no secret that I'm a big supporter of them being both encouraged and financially supported by this government, but it is wonderful to see that the private sector and individuals put their money where their mouth is by backing these two great organisations. It's a beautiful example of civil society delivering with a locally tailored, responsive compassion that builds the bonds between strangers until they have become something so much more special—that is, a community.

Senate adjourned at 22:26