About us
Before you started supporting us, we were not sure how long we could survive. Our migrant community are now discovering vegetables they have never seen before! Thanks to you, we have ingredients to cook with. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Grace and the team at
Lentil as Anything
Formally established in 2005, SecondBite was the idea of Ian and Simone Carson who decided they could no longer watch good food go to waste whilst people went hungry.
For the first year, SecondBite was 100% volunteer run; however, in late 2006 the surplus food supply and recipient demand meant that some serious coordination was needed. So once seed funding was secured, our first member of staff came aboard.
Times certainly have changed since the early days. Now those few humble boxes of surplus food have grown into 80+ tonnes of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and deli items every month! To read more about our generous food donors, please click here.
We believe it’s the simplicity of our model that has led to this phenomenal growth. Keeping it simple has enabled us to be extremely flexible in our collections, thus maximising the quality and quantity of food collected and minimising waste.
SecondBite believes passionately in working collaboratively with other agencies. Not only does this conserve precious resources, but it also ensures that for today and tomorrow all community groups, large and small, receive the best possible service and a get a ‘fair go’ at receiving good quality fresh nutritious food.
Many groups provide meals and food parcels for a wide range of cultural groups. Providing the raw ingredients allows each group and individual the freedom and dignity to decide what menus they wish to create. To read about our many recipients, please click here.
In truth the response and results, to date, have surprised even us. In 2007, SecondBite collected and distributed 132 tonnes of surplus fresh food, enough to provide 264,000 hearty 500g meals. In 2009, SecondBite collected 700 tonnes of food that would otherwise have driven to landfill. This equates to 630 tonnes of greenhouse gasses . In 2010, SecondBite collected 880 tonnes of fresh food - an increase of 25% from 2009.
The volume sounds impressive, but in reality it is a mere drop in the ocean, especially when you consider that over 11,500 tonnes is driven to landfill every month in Victoria, whilst thousands of families struggle to put a meal on the table. With your help we can do so much more. Thank you.