OzHarvest Melbourne were recently visited by a wonderful community fundraiser – Moira Tobin – who raised almost $7,000 from raffling a brand-new Thermomix! Along with a generous donor matching all donations to OzHarvest throughout June, the raffle allowed us to deliver an additional 27,000 meals to people in need. We spoke to Moira about what inspired her fundraising raffle.

What encouraged you to raise money for charity?

I was listening to a radio interview about someone who worked at a charity, who had served breakfast to 200 people and were struggling to keep up with demand. That really struck a chord with me. After that, I knew I wanted to raise money for a charity providing food relief, as my business has always focused on a zero-waste message.

Luckily, I’ve had the opportunity to help co-ordinate Thermomix fundraising raffles for numerous worthy causes and charities over the years. After consulting with an amazing group of Thermomix owners – the response for this raffle was overwhelmingly positive, it all happened very quickly!

Why did you choose OzHarvest?

A few of my customers (Bec, Fee and Karen) put their hands up to oversee the project. Karen works for a not-for-profit organisation, so she was in charge of researching food relief charities and quickly found OzHarvest.

We were also lucky that an OzHarvest supporter was matching donations dollar for dollar in June, so our contribution had double the impact!

What was the community reaction to the raffle helping OzHarvest deliver over 27,000 meals?

Incredible! It certainly serves as a reminder that collectively we have the ability to make a difference.  I’ll be delivering a brand new Thermomix to the lucky winner, Angela as soon as we are out of lockdown!  Hopefully, we can make this raffle an annual event and help deliver even more meals!

There are many ways you can fundraise for OzHarvest, here are a few ideas to get you started! Learn more about fundraising for OzHarvest, here.