Newly appointed board director, Lucy D’Arville shared her journey on how a chance meeting with Ronni nine years ago resulted in her becoming part of the OzHarvest family.

How and when did you first discover OzHarvest?

It was one of those magical moments in my life when I happened to be in the right place, at the right time.  In 2012, Ronni was a guest speaker at a women’s event at Bain.  There was not a dry eye left in the room after she shared her personal story that led to founding OzHarvest.  After her speech, a colleague and I felt compelled to approach Ronni and offer pro bono strategy consulting support, should it ever be of help.  A few months later, Ronni made contact asking us to help OzHarvest calculate the Social Return on Investment on each of OzHarvest’s programs.  The rest is history…!

How have you been part of our journey since then?

I have loved seeing the extraordinary growth in OzHarvest’s impact from 5.3million meals in 2012 to over 35million meals last year, as well as continuous innovation including setting up the first rescued food supermarket.  Bain has supported OzHarvest over the years across a range of topics including providing ideas to improve operations (such as the value of having a warehouse to store rescued food overnight), designing the organisation structure to support the growing demands of the business, helping think through the approach to building strategic partnerships such as that achieved with Woolworths and fundraising effectiveness including setting up ForPurposeCo.

You’ve just been appointed to the OzHarvest board – congratulations! What do you love most about being part of our big yellow family?

I love the warm and generous spirit that imbues all that OzHarvest does.  I have worked with many non-profits globally and OzHarvest has the biggest heart of any organisation I have seen.  I leave every OzHarvest meeting, event and working session with a spring in my step full of joy at playing a small part in the incredible impact it has on the world.

What is your go-to recipe at home for fighting food waste?

I am so embarrassed to admit that if I did enter the kitchen to cook, the resulting meal would likely end up as food waste given my lack of culinary skills!  However, I do carefully plan our grocery shopping, and my husband is very inventive in rustling up new creations to make use of our various leftovers.