It’s not very often in this world that you get an offer of a free lunch! So into the car we go and off the 4127, which is a fantastic new food hub at the old bus depot in Surfers Paradise. They have some wonderful food places and eating establishments. I have already completed a review of PARADOX COFFEE ROASTERS, if your interested. The Top Ten Team and a few extras (everyone wants a free feed) went along to help promote this wonderful organisation, that not only saves food, but puts it to good use, feeding people who really need it.
The thing about this free lunch is that all the food we were eating was going to be thrown out. One hundred percent of the time, it was just left over, or not needed, and not because it was bad or going off. In fact, 1000kg of carrots had been “rescued” because they had been cut wrong. That’s right, an organisation was going to throw out perfectly good carrots because they were chopped wrong. Instead, they were “rescued” by the Oz Harvest Volunteers and on Monday 27th some of those carrots were transformed into delicious food.
Oz Harvest is the brain child of Ronni Kahn, who founded this organisation in November 2004.
OzHarvest is the first perishable food rescue organisation in Australia collecting quality excess food from commercial outlets and delivering it, direct and free of charge, to close to 500 charities providing much needed assistance to vulnerable men, women and children across Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Melbourne and Newcastle.
OzHarvest is the only food rescue organisation in Australia collecting surplus food from all types of food providers including fruit and vegetable markets, supermarkets, hotels, wholesalers, farmers, stadiums, corporate events, catering companies, shopping centres, delis, cafes, restaurants, film and TV shoots and boardrooms.
The above statement was taken directly from the OZ HARVEST WEBSITE, If you would like to find out more about this fantastic organisation, please click HERE.
The amount of food that we waste in our society is unpardonable. Mostly because we don’t plan meals and then food needs to be thrown out! If you would like some tips and tricks on how to help with your food wastage, please have a look at a few of my helpful blogs.
7 Ways to Save Money on Your Weekly Food Bill.
Handy Hint’s with Liz (Don’t Waste Food Again).
These are all fabulous blogs that will not only help you to save money, but help you to not waste food!
In 2013, OzHarvest was chosen as the official Australian partner of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to bring to life the global ‘Think.Eat.Save – Reduce Your Foodprint’ campaign to an Australian audience. This fantastic global initiative, that will hopefully help western society focus on reducing food wastage.
So now to the food, what does rescued food actually taste like? Well, really good actually!
Entrée Course – Vegetable Soup.
Vegetable Soup is always good, as the combination of different vegetables work to create a myriad of flavours. This soup was delicious, especially with the carrots adding to the sweetness of the flavour. I must say I generally have to season my food, but this was perfectly seasoned with a little bit of coriander on the top to just make it even more tasty!
Main Course – Vegetable Korma and Rice
What a flavoursome second course. You really didn’t feel like you had missed out by not getting any meat, the vegetables were perfectly cooked and the flavour of the korma was spot on. It had just a touch of heat, but not too much for those that are afraid of the chilli.
Dessert Course – Carrot Cake
By this stage we were all very full, but when a great cake, cooked by Goldstein’s Bakery using the “rescued” produce was on offer, I wasn’t going to say no. We grabbed our carrot cake, which was light and fluffy and perfectly moist and headed to Paradox for a well deserved coffee!
In the middle of eating our meal, I just happened to be interviewed for the local Channel 9 news and was on the news that night. If you would like to watch the link on Facebook Click HERE!
So there you have it, a three course meal, FREE, and made from food that was going to be thrown out!
Don’t forget to log onto the website and have a look at an OZ HARVEST programme near you! It is a fantastic organisation, and they always need people to help out!
Thanks so much for reading, you know I always love to hear your thoughts? How much food do you waste. What could you do to help with food wastage THINK, EAT, SAVE?
Enjoy Irresponsibly!
Liz xx
7 Ways To Save On Your Weekly Shopping Bill
Handy Hints with Liz, (Don’t Waste Food Again)
Liz xx
P.S Don't forget to subscribe to receive your 3 free e-Books.
OzHarvest is a fantastic organisation and it’s great to see food that would overwise be binned going out to help those in need. It looks like you enjoyed a really good meal with lots of flavour and had a moment of fame as well! xx
Yes Charlie, it was a great day 🙂 Liz xx
I been loving reading about everyone’s OZ Harvest Day lunch – all so different but all inspiring.
Yes it is a wonderful organisation that does a fantastic Job! Liz xx
LOVE OzHarvest. They are my ALL time favourite charity. I’ve never been one to throw away food, we always find a use for it, often it is repurposed and used in another dish, or popped in the freezer to enjoy at a later date. And recently we started ordering Hello Fresh, that has totally stopped us having any kind of left over at all.
However working in commercial kitchens, for many years I watched as amazingly delicious food was just turfed in the bin, but when OzHarvest became a thing, I always ensured OzHarvest were called to take the food away. So for me, I really don’t see any wastage.
It is events like this that really raise awareness. Top post my lady. xox
Thanks Babe! I totally agree, such a great organisation… I loved reading your post to. If we all keep doing our bit, we will continue to raise awareness 🙂 Have a great weekend! Liz xx