Disadvantaged South Australians receive 100,000 meals from Adelaide Convention Centre

Thousands of disadvantaged and homeless South Australians have been given a meal over the last 6 years thanks to Adelaide Convention Centre (ACC) partnerships with Foodbank SA and OzHarvest.

This week, the Centre passed the milestone of donating 100,000 meals to the charities, which collects spare meals and provides them to their own charity partners for distribution to people in need across the state.

The Centre’s partnership with Foodbank SA dates back to 2008 when they became the first non-food manufacturing company in South Australia to regularly donate to the charity.

In 2011, ACC entered a partnership with OzHarvest and became one of the organisation’s first partners in South Australia and helped with its first trial food drop.

Foodbank SA and OzHarvest work in slightly different ways so the dual partnerships complement each other and enable the Centre to support more South Australians in need and further reduce food waste.

ACC Chief Executive Officer Alec Gilbert said the Centre’s relationships with Foodbank SA and OzHarvest enabled them to make a practical contribution to tackling hunger among disadvantaged South Australians.

“The Centre is proud of its partnerships with both organisations which we actively promote to raise awareness of their valuable work,” said Mr Gilbert.

“The partnerships work by the Centre donating any freshly prepared spare meals resulting from an unexpected drop in numbers at our events.

“OzHarvest Adelaide collects the meals from the Centre within two hours then deliver them immediately to charitable partners for distribution to people in need.

“Foodbank SA works a little differently with the Centre preparing and freezing surplus soups and stews from meals from events.

“The frozen meals are stored in a warehouse by Foodbank SA before distribution to welfare agencies.

“This not only helps people in need but has the added benefit of keeping the food out of landfill and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption.”

“The Centre can produce thousands of meals every day so we take the responsibility of food waste very seriously.”

To date, the Centre has donated 108,667 meals to OzHarvest Adelaide and Foodbank SA.

This equates to almost 35,000 kilograms of food.

Environmentally, we’ve achieved savings of almost 5 million litres of water normally used to breakdown the food in landfill and 56,000 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere.

OzHarvest SA State Manager Hayley Everuss said the Adelaide Convention Centre set a fantastic example for the South Australian food industry and have been magnificent advocates of OzHarvest since our inception in Adelaide. 

“The ACC team are so passionate about making sure good food is saved from landfill,” said Ms Everuss.

“We collect stunning meals, sandwiches and desserts from their kitchen every day and our drivers have the privilege of delivering this joy and nourishment to local charities supporting people in our community who need it most.”

FoodbankSA CEO Richard Pagliaro said the Adelaide Convention Centre was quick to get on-board to distribute their wonderful gourmet food that would have gone to waste.

“Ever since, they’ve regularly provided us with all types of meals and they’re much loved and anticipated by our clients,” said Mr Pagliaro.

“Demand is so great we created a rotation system so that so everyone gets a share of the wonderful food provided to us with real heartfelt generosity.”

For more information, visit www.adelaidecc.com.au
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Please contact Adelaide Convention Centre Marketing Manager Giovanna Toldi on (08) 8212 4099

ISSUED BY HUGHES PUBLIC RELATIONS: Please contact Simon Hatcher on (08) 8412 4100 or 0419 780 071 (M)