Major community food program launched in Alice Springs

Importantly, it will enable Tangentyere Council to create a breakfast program to provide a healthy and nutritious breakfast meal for more than 200 employment training participants who struggle on welfare payments. It is estimated the program will deliver more than 15,000 meals to local Alice Springs residents in the first year alone.

Coles Community Food with SecondBite celebrates 300th store nationally.

Local residents of Alice Springs will be the beneficiaries of a new community food program launched today as part of the Coles Community Food with SecondBite program.

The Coles Alice Springs supermarket will become the first in the region to adopt the program and in doing so become the 300th Coles store nationally to participate in the initiative which sees fresh produce and bakery goods donated to the local communities.

Over the next two years, the Coles Community Food with SecondBite program aims to donate enough healthy, fresh produce to charities around the country to provide more than five million meals to those in need.

In Alice Springs, the program will support the work of the Tangentyere Council’s indigenous focused employment service, which assists participants obtain the necessary skills to achieve sustainable employment.

Importantly, it will enable Tangentyere Council to create a breakfast program to provide a healthy and nutritious breakfast meal for more than 200 employment training participants who struggle on welfare payments. It is estimated the program will deliver more than 15,000 meals to local Alice Springs residents in the first year alone.

Coles Store Development and Operations Director, Stuart Machin, said: “Coles is extremely proud of its involvement in such a worthwhile program which is helping feed people right across Australia. Coles Alice Springs is thrilled to establish a partnership with SecondBite and the Tangentyere Council and looks forward to providing surplus fresh produce to those who need it most.”

SecondBite CEO, Elaine Montegriffo, said: “SecondBite is delighted to be working with the Tangentyere Council, providing them with rescued fresh food that they will use to serve a delicious and nutritious breakfast to all of their employees. Many council employees travel long distances to work from town camps and now they will be able to start their day with the benefit of a hearty, healthy breakfast. SecondBite’s presence in Alice Springs comes at a crucial time with the establishment of the Central Australian Sustainable Food Network following the Alice Springs Regional Food Summit in which we participated in August.”

Liam O’Sullivan, General Manager of Tangentyere Employment Services, said: “We’re looking forward to starting our breakfast program and we’re very appreciative of the tremendous support of SecondBite and Coles in helping us to provide good, nutritious food for the people that we work for. Coles has been extremely supportive of Tangentyere Employment Services and has assisted us to place local people into employment at their Alice Springs store.”

Coles Community Food with SecondBite has been developed to re-distribute fresh produce and bakery items from Coles stores to local community food programs in both metropolitan and regional communities and provide a positive health impact on the estimated 1.2 million Australians who don’t have access to a safe, regular and affordable food supply.

The launch of the program in Alice Springs strengthens Coles’ commitment to social and cultural diversity and follows the recent establishment of the Coles Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Plan.

“Across the country we have already distributed the equivalent of over 450,000 meals to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities through the Coles Community Food with SecondBite program, and have raised over $180,000 for the Coles Indigenous Food Fund through the sale of Outback Spirit products,” said Coles Store Development and Operations Director, Stuart Machin.

“We’ve also significantly grown the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander team members in Coles stores across Australia to help us maintain such high levels of customer service.”

Coles selected SecondBite to help manage its national program due to its expertise in fresh food rescue, focus on food safety procedures and quality control, and its unique Community Connect™ model.

Collectively, Coles has already donated over one million kilograms of nutritious food to more than 300 community food programs via SecondBite’s distribution network. This means over two million meals have been provided to those in need*.

Once fully implemented, the program is expected to be up and running in 665 Coles stores across Australia.

To find out more about SecondBite please go to www.secondbite.org

For further information, interviews with Coles, SecondBite or Tangentyere Council please contact: Natalie Ciccocioppo at Hughes Public Relations on 8412 4100 or natalie@hughespr.com.au.

*The meal conversion is based on a 500g meal, which SecondBite research established as the appropriate weight of a hearty, nutritious meal based on the typical food types and proportions redistributed by SecondBite.