- Lotterywest grant of $750,000 to support food charity SecondBite
- SecondBite aims to provide up to three million meals per year to Western Australians facing hardship
- SecondBite is a national not-for-profit organisation that redistributes surplus fresh food to community food programs across Australia
Community Services Minister Simone McGurk today presented a $750,000 Lotterywest grant to food charity SecondBite, which will go towards helping the organisation provide up to three million meals per year to Western Australians facing hardship.
SecondBite is a national not-for-profit organisation that redistributes surplus fresh food to community food programs across Australia. These programs offer services including community meals, soup kitchens and emergency relief hampers.
The Lotterywest grant of $250,000 per annum over three years will help the food charity to establish its WA operations, rescue and redistribute surplus fresh and nutritious food to Western Australians in need, and further improve food rescue and redistribution across the State.
Formerly operating as a partner of Food Rescue WA, SecondBite launched its independent WA operation in July this year in Belmont.
In its first quarter of operations, the charity increased operations by more than 90 per cent and estimates it has provided the equivalent of 686,404 meals for 193 community food relief agencies across the State. The food is delivered to partner agencies completely free of charge.
It is estimated that bulk food donations into the network have doubled and will double again in the following quarter.
The charity aims to provide the equivalent of three million meals for people in need in WA this financial year.
As noted by Community Services Minister Simone McGurk:
"The public are now more aware of the amount of food that is going to landfill or waste.
"This is bad, not only for the environment but absolutely tragic when we have people in need.
"SecondBite are doing a fantastic job feeding people facing hardship and they do this by providing fresh and nutritious food which would otherwise go to landfill.
"The State Government, through Lotterywest, is pleased to support SecondBite which is giving a helping hand to those Western Australians doing it tough."
