Second Bite

20 March 2013

Celebrity Chef helps to feed city's needy

Successful chef Curtis Stone made a name serving up dishes for TV audiences.  More recently, he has turned his attention to helping those who would consider themselves lucky to have a TV, let alone a living room to put one in.

The former Surfing the Menu star was here at The Salvation Army Bundamba on Thursday 14 March, where he met local Salvation Army volunteers and Ipswich battlers for the local launch of the partnership between the Second Bite organisation and Coles supermarkets. 

Second Bite was established in Melbourne in 2005 with a mission to reduce the volume of healthy food thrown out by major supermarkets and other food retailers, and to feed the poor.  Since its humble beginnings, the organisation has developed a national network, collecting left over food from a wide range of sources and delivering it to charitities and community groups. 

Mr Stone has been Coles ambassador for the program for more than a year.  Coles celebrated the delivery of one million meals nationally last Christmas.  "Here in Ipswich we are working directly with the Salvos, who do an incredible job in an area that needs a little bit of love," he said.

"The Coles community food program is redirecting all those ingredients that would normally find their way to a rubbish bin, partnering with Second Bite, which is doing all the leg-work, and the Salvos, who are getting it into the hands of the people who need it - it's a dream scenario."

Second Bite spokesman Russell Shields said the organisation had gone from moving 500kg of food in its first year, to $3 million last year.  "Australians throw out $5 billion worth of food each year - the stats are scary," he said.  "At the same time we've got 1.2 million Australians who last year ran out of food."