OzHarvest Port Macquarie has moved into its new home in the Port Macquarie Neighbourhood Centre and will now focus on growing their ‘yellow army’ of volunteers to tackle increased demand in the community.
The Neighbourhood Centre, which has been receiving rescued food from OzHarvest since 2016, came to the rescue late last year by offering the space free-of-charge. The Centre’s Julie Trowbridge said they were excited to be able to share their home with OzHarvest.
“OzHarvest does such important work in Port Macquarie and the surrounding areas. By ensuring they have a base for their operations, we ensure that they are able to keep saving quality food from landfill and delivering it to people in need. At the neighbourhood centre alone, we feed up to 150 people a week with the food we receive from OzHarvest. Without them, we and a number of other agencies, would not be able to continue.”
OzHarvest State Manager for NSW, Richard Watson said food rescue in Port Macquarie relies on strong community connections. “We are incredibly grateful to the Neighbourhood Centre for allowing us to operate out of their space. Thanks to their generosity, OzHarvest has a permanent place to call home and can continue rescuing good food and delivering it to people in need.”
There are currently 18 volunteers working across five days of the week out of the Port Macquarie chapter and OzHarvest is looking to increase that to meet further demand in the local area.
“Our volunteers are incredibly dedicated, donating their precious time to help OzHarvest stop good food from going to waste and deliver it to 18 charities and schools in the Port Macquarie area. In 2019 alone we were able to rescue around 120,000 kgs of food –which allowed us to provide 360,000 meals for people in need. We hope that more people join us to volunteer and make a difference in this wonderful community,” said Richard.
If you are interested in volunteering for OzHarvest Port Macquarie, contact David Morris, david.morris@ozharvest.org or call 02 9516 3877.
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