Aiming to help combat food waste on a national level, Melbourne startup Farmers Pick has expanded from Victoria into Sydney and partnered with OzHarvest.
Co-founded by Joshua Ball and Joshua Brooks-Duncan, the team would collect rejected fruits and vegetables from supermarkets and deliver them directly to customers’ doorsteps.
The company says it has saved 700,000 kgs of produce from going to waste since its inception in 2020.
Through this new partnership, the pair wants to raise awareness of the food waste crisis occurring on a commercial scale in Australia and also provide 100,000 meals to those experiencing food insecurity in the next year.
Josh Ball, co-founder of Farmers Pick, said the food waste issue is “dire” as tonnes of fresh produce are left on farms to rot. Meanwhile, thousands of Australians struggle with their weekly food shop.
Lisa Dainty, OzHarvest’s national community partnerships manager, said the organisation’s goal is to halve food waste by 2030.
“With food insecurity on the rise, we need to do whatever we can to make sure good food does not end up in landfills but feeds hungry people instead. We also want to inspire people at home to understand how we all have a role to play in tackling the nation’s food waste.”
