News and events
Ted Baillieu volunteers with SecondBite
Victorian Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu volunteered with SecondBite on 22 December 2009. He worked with SecondBite's driver Dave Hart and our Food Program Manager Russell Shields, to deliver food to St Mary's House of Welcome. Several members of the media covered Mr Baillieu's visit. Click on the video below to see him speaking about SecondBite's operations.
On the day of Mr Baillieu's visit,.SecondBite's Russell Shields, and Sr Rosanne Murphy, the Day Centre Manager of St Mary's, discussed growth in demand for food and welfare services with members of the media. Watch a video of their discussion below.
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Tongue Meat: A Feast of Urban Fairytales
During the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Tongue Meat: A Feast of Urban Fairytales, is playing at Guildford Lane Gallery from 1 to 10 October 2009. Entry is free or by donation, with proceeds going to SecondBite. For more information please visit http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/
Grand Final Fever Bites!
IWIRC, an association that supports and trains people interested in insolvency, holds a grand final luncheon every year to profile its network and raise money for a chosen charity. We were again thrilled that the chosen charity was SecondBite!
The luncheon was held at the Palladium at Crown on the 18 September 2009 and was hosted by an engaging Brian Taylor, with Matthew Richardson as guest speaker, and was attended by over 700 guests.
The event raised an impressive $7,800 for SecondBite and provided a fantastic afternoon of entertainment. Thank you to the IWIRC team and Gray’s auctioneers!
SecondBite receives donation from Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation 2009 Major Grants Program
SecondBite was recently named as a recipient of the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation 2009 Major Grants Program, along with our friends from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and Baptcare's Sanctuary Program. This generous donation will allow SecondBite to expand its food program infrastructure and resources. This will enable SecondBite to distribute more food to agencies for people living in disadvantaged circumstances in Victoria and Tasmania.
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Footy Fans unite for the SecondBite Winter Food Collection
Fans at the Collingwood v Sydney match at the MCG on Sunday 23rd August united to support the SecondBite Winter Food Collection. The community response was fantastic, with 280kg of food collected on the day, on top of the 400 cases of food donated by Heinz Foods. All together, this amounts to 3 tonnes of food collected! This food will make a real difference to the more than 312,000 people facing food insecurity in Victoria this winter.
This result could not have been achieved without the help of our 25 fantastic SecondBiters who manned the collection stations in the windy conditions – a job made more interesting by the extra challenge of controlling their balloons! They looked fantastic in their SecondBite hats and shirts and did an excellent job.
SecondBite would also like to thank our supporters of the Winter Food Collection - the Collingwood Football Club, the AFL, the MCC and Heinz Australia.
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SecondBite praised in ParliamentAndrea Coote MP endorses SecondBite in Parliament. |
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SecondBite Supporter EventsSwinburne University Event Management students, together with the Loreal and Moomba Groups organised two The events, each an evening reception, were SecondBite's way of saying thank you to the volunteers who Feedback from both evenings has been really wonderful and extremely positive, and we'd like to take this We'd like to also take this opportunity to thank the following people for their time and support. Active Air Rentals Active Lighting Asylum Seeker's Resource Centre and the Vox Congo Blackeyed Susans (Band) Foster's Group Ian Cover John and Virginia Allen Mecanix Restaurant One Little Indian Enterprises Peter Rowland Catering PFD Foods The Radar Media Group Tiger Turf —————————————————————————————————————————————————— |
SecondBite Plate – A Flemington Green Fields initiative for a greener future
Saturday 9th May
In 2007, SecondBite established a relationship with the Victoria Racing Club (VRC) to prevent good quality food from going to landfill. At last year’s Melbourne Cup Carnival, SecondBite collected and redistributed 2.6 tonnes of top quality food from the corporate marquees to a host of food relief agencies across Melbourne.
In 2008, the VRC established ‘Flemington Green Fields’, a program to promote the Melbourne Cup Carnival as a ‘greener’ event incorporating waste, energy and food management. In addition to SecondBite’s food relief support, SecondBite provided fifteen volunteers at each of the race days throughout the Spring Racing Carnival to help promote this environmental sustainability program.
On Saturday, 9 May 2009, the VRC hosted a Flemington Green Fields Race Day. They gifted SecondBite with a race, ‘The SecondBite Plate’, as a gesture of gratitude for our contribution. The event brought together some of Melbourne’s leaders in food and business in support of Secondbite and the Flemington Green Fields initiative.
NAB Charity 5km Fun Run
NAB Charity 5km Fun Run takes place around Sydney on 30th April 2009. For further information or to take part, please contact malcolm.thompson@nab.com.au. Click here to make a donation and support this event.
VRC Spring Racing Carnival
A whopping 2.6 tonnes of top quality tucker was collected from this year’s Melbourne Cup Carnival. Talk about from the Paddock to the Plate!
Everything from decadent imported Vienna sacher torte and fresh gourmet pumpkin gnocchi to fresh olive encrusted Atlantic salmon with roasted tomato and caper salsa was driven direct from the venues, such as the Emirates Marquee, to a host of food relief agencies across Melbourne – a pretty impressive menu by any standard!
Leigh Neville, Executive Chef at Epicure Catering had this to say…
‘Being a part of SecondBite means we can take our food philosophy to a new level by supporting local and needy communities with food that cannot otherwise be used in our business, e.g. a restaurant can run a list of specials to minimise wastage. If we have a corporate function for 500 guests and 80 guests do not attend, we will not know until they are seated and the food is in the oven. Thankfully, the Good Samaritan Legislation allows us to pass it on to SecondBite and it can meet the needs of disadvantaged people.
‘SecondBite to me is an incredible organisation. It has proved that a large city like Melbourne can have the same community spirit that is normally heard of in country towns. The way SecondBite is set up it takes minimal effort from our end for such a positive result. I take my hat off to the team at SecondBite and all those that make it happen.’
SecondBite selected as VRC Sustainability partner
We were also proud to be a selected as a Sustainability partner of the VRC and formally invited to be part of ‘Flemington Green Fields’. The partnership also includes AGL and Cleanevent, and will result in a ‘greener’ and ‘more sustainable’ Flemington future.
Over 80 SecondBiters signed up to be Recycling Ambassadors promoting the ‘Green Fields’ initiative over the four race days, which helped Cleanevent to rescue over 10 tonnes of recycling from this year’s carnival.
BrainLink Hampers
In the festive spirit, SecondBite rallied a team of volunteers to pack and deliver 200 hampers to BrainLink, a wonderful organisation that works to improve the quality of life for people affected by conditions of the brain, and provides invaluable support to their families. The CEO of BrainLink, Sharon Strugnell, had this to say about the service, ‘A very big big thank you for arranging the give-away bags for our families. They were just fantastic and it made so many people happy. I can’t begin to tell you what it did for people. One lady said, “I was saving to buy the essentials and now I have margarine! We don't know how lucky we are”.’
Christmas Eve Collection
SecondBite and its troop of committed volunteers managed an impressive Christmas Eve collection at the Prahran Markets, bringing 2008 to a successful close. Our volunteers were all smiles as they collected and sorted the generous donations made by the Prahran Market Traders in support of SecondBite and our work in the community.
Update on Tasmania
After a recent visit to Hobart, SecondBite Tasmania is up and running with its first official food run. The weekly collection of surplus food from Moorilla Estate will be delivered directly to Bethlehem House. Considering the incredible support we have had from food providers, community groups, government, media, etc., this is only the beginning of creating a surplus food redistribution network across the state.
Biograde Ltd deliver 15,000 good wishes for the environment
John Dee of Planet Ark organised the donation of 15,000 biodegradable bags, courtesy of Biograde Ltd. This has been a great boost to SecondBite’s ethic to be as environmentally responsible as possible, knowing that when we bag up fresh produce we’re not contributing to land waste.
Bushfire relief
SecondBite is working with the Australian Red Cross and local city councils affected by the bushfires and welcomes your donations to support these efforts, thank you!
SecondBite Melbourne has a new home!
SecondBite has moved. A huge thank you must go to Andrew Angelatos and The Angel Foundation for the wonderful gift of our brand new premises at Kensington.
The additional space for new staff members AND cold storage facilities will ensure SecondBite’s operations are in great shape moving forward.
The Tasmanian Government Says ‘Yes’ to Important New Legislation And SecondBite Tasmania is born
On 8 May 2008, SecondBite Executive Director, Katy Barfield approached the Tasmanian Government and asked them to consider introducing legislation to protect from liability those who donate food for charitable purposes.
As a result of this meeting, SecondBite has cause to celebrate as the Tasmanian Government has decided to pass the ‘Civil Liability Bill 2008’.
SecondBite currently operates in Victoria under a similar Bill (the Good Samaritan Act, 2002) distributing fresh surplus food from markets, wholesalers and retailers to people in need.
This parliamentary coup will encourage Tasmanian businesses to donate food and gives SecondBite the green light to begin operations in Tasmania by the end of 2008.
SecondBite will be the first organisation in Tasmania to focus solely on the collection of fresh surplus food and its direct delivery to agencies and people in need. Due to overwhelming requests from local community organisations, they will now commence collections in Hobart with a view to expanding Tasmania wide. Initially, they will collect from the famous Salamanca markets, local festivals and events, a variety of local retailers and wholesalers, delivering it to recipients such as The Salvation Army, St Vincent’s, Bethlehem House, Red Cross, Anglicare, Mission Australia and many others.
This is a landmark decision for Tasmania and SecondBite are extremely pleased with the outcome.
‘I congratulate the Tasmanian Government for expediting this legislation; SecondBite Melbourne has seen phenomenal growth in its first two years and if the generous response from the Tasmanian Government and local community to date is any indication of things to come, then SecondBite Tasmania will be able to offer immediate and vital support to the many agencies and community groups that provide food for people in need.’
Katy Barfield, Executive Director – SecondBite
SecondBite wins the ‘Contribution to Community’ – 2008 Melbourne Awards!
On 30 August, SecondBite received the Melbourne Award for ‘Contribution to the Community’. The awards were held at the Melbourne Town Hall and hosted by Channel 9’s Livinia Nixon and Peter Hitchener. It is an honour to be recognised by the City of Melbourne for the work we do. We would like to congratulate all the other nominees and winners for their outstanding work in the community.