A new OzHarvest hub has officially opened in Hallam on Thursday, 12 June, with crowds gathering at 21-22 National Drive for the launch, and volunteers eager to spread the love.
Before 8am, the guests began to arrive wth breakfast being served, followed shortly after by welcome speeches, the acknowledgement of country, and finally, a tour of the hub at 8:30am.
Christine Crowley, OzHarvest’s Melbourne manager, said that she “feels great, it’s nice to see it all come together”.
“We’ve known this area, and we’ve been here for a while, so we all know that more support is needed.
“So, it’s great to finally be here to develop this hub, to make more connections in the community, and further our impact.”
Founded in 2004 by Ronni Kahn AO, OzHarvest is Australia’s leading food rescue organisation, collecting quality surplus food from more than 2600 businesses.
These include supermarkets, restaurants, cafes, hotels, retailers, airports and other retail food outlets.
The new hub is essentially a repurposed warehouse, able to fit three OzHarvest vans, a large cool room for perishables, and rows upon rows of other goods.
James Goth, OzHarvest’s ceo, took some time to address the crowd, delivering both good and bad news.
“The bad news is that food insecurity in Australia is a big problem, and it’s getting worse,” Goth said.
“We have more and more agencies coming to us, saying we want more people, so our waiting list used to be 800.
“On the good news, we have a model; Australia produces way too much food, and we have this food so close to the people, that they need to find one little way to pick it up at a certain place.
“Because of the people in this room, we’re now bringing that model into the workforce, we’ve got supermarkets willing to give us more food, we have our partners, food banks, and councillors who support us.”
In Victoria, 81 per cent of the charities OzHarvest supports saw an increase in demand for food relief, and 77 per cent of charities need more food to meet demand.
According to OzHarvest’s 2025 Community Needs Survey, it revealed that there is a national hunger emergency, with a 54 per cent increase in people being turned away by the 1500 charities that OzHarvest serves across Australia.
Also present was the City of Casey’s mayor, Stefan Koomen, accompanied by the neighbouring Cardinia Shire Mayor Jack Kowarzik, as well as Narre Warren North MP Belinda Wilson.
From Koomen’s point of view, “there are a lot of people doing it tough in our community”.
“Cost of living is a major – probably the biggest issue here, so to have a hub that’s bringing more food relief and more support for those in need is absolutely vital.
“Not only is it extra support, it’s about coordinating within Casey the limited resources that we’ve got and making sure it’s getting to the right people,” he said.
Lisa Milkovic, the food and supplies donations coordinator from Narre Warren’s Transit Soup Kitchen and Food Support, was also present, being that the food drive is one of the beneficiaries of the new hub’s donations.
“It’s incredible that OzHarvest is delivering to us; they make a huge difference in the amount of food we get to give out,” Lisa said.
“It’s the deliveries that are crucial, the need is incredibly high now, and it’s growing every week, so it’s a huge impact in helping us to deliver the food to those that need it.”
James English, a volunteer from OzHarvest, gave guests the rundown of how the trucks operate, taking the audience through the daily routine, the integrated cool room in the back, as well as the progress OzHarvest has made in the last few months.
“Three months ago, we had nine trucks leaving Port Melbourne every day, from Monday to Friday,” English said.
“The next truck would pick up an average of 1000 kilos, between supermarkets, farmers, food donors, and it’s that simple.
“Our whole model is, if we can find food on the road, even at a Woolworths store, we can feed the people that need it the most.”
He also expanded that currently, there are 13 agencies and or organisations that come to the warehouse, signalling in the future an even bigger expansion of their operations.
Touching on the growing food insecurity in the community, Narre Warren North MP Belinda Wilson said that seeing it come to life, especially following the $200,000 grant funded through the Victorian Government’s Regional Food Security alliance for OzHarvest, “was amazing”.
“The [state] government has contributed to this as part of our program, and I think the other great thing is that there are already three trucks coming out of here.
“So we’re going to see some really great relief and grant programs coming out of this new hub,” she said.
A hearty breakfast was served to those who attended, and, at the end of the event, OzHarvest drivers took the trucks out of the warehouse to make their rounds, with the attendees cheering, gleeful after a successful launch in one of the busier hubs in Casey.
