Australia’s leading food rescue organisation, OzHarvest, received a Royal visit by Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall earlier today (Thursday, 12 Nov 2015).

In a warehouse hidden away in the industrial suburbs of Alexandria in Sydney Australia, The Duchess arrived at the Alexandria Industrial Goodman Estate, greeted by the OzHarvest family including OzHarvest CEO & Founder, Ronni Kahn along with many volunteers dressed in their distinct bright yellow.

During the visit, The Duchess, along with Mrs Kerryn Baird, wife of NSW Premier The Hon Mike Baird, was shown the unique space, where OzHarvest’s purpose to Nourish Our Country comes to life through their food rescue, nutrition education and community engagement programs.

Her Royal Highness chose to visit OzHarvest for their innovative work in food rescue and food security, having saved more than 14 million kilos of food from ending up in landfill and delivering more than 40 million meals to people in need across Australia.

OzHarvest is also the official Australasian partner of the United Nations Environment Programme, global food waste reduction campaign, Think.Eat.Save.

Founded in 2004, OzHarvest is the first perishable food rescue organisation in Australia collecting quality excess food from commercial outlets and delivering it, direct and free of charge, to 800 charities providing much needed assistance to vulnerable men, women and children across Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Newcastle and Perth as well as regional areas through its REAP program.

It is the only food rescue organisation in Australia collecting surplus food from all types of food providers including fruit and vegetable markets, supermarkets, hotels, wholesalers, farmers, stadiums, corporate events, catering companies, shopping centres, delis, cafes, restaurants, film and TV shoots and boardrooms.

OzHarvest developed a national Nutrition Education Sustenance Training (NEST) program to help improve nutrition and eating habits of vulnerable Australians and more recently established a hospitality and training program for disadvantaged youth, Nourish.

During the visit, The Duchess met with young Nourish students from troubled backgrounds changing their lives through the Nourish program and thanked more than 100 OzHarvest supporters who were present at the distinguished occasion for their passion, dedication and commitment to improving the environment and helping those less fortunate in the community.

The Duchess was also offered a taste of “rescued” food, made from ingredients otherwise destined for landfill, transformed into beautiful dishes by volunteers, and visited OzHarvest’s Good+Harvest community garden which volunteers tended to.

Founder and CEO of OzHarvest, Ronni Kahn, said the OzHarvest family was so inspired by the visit and the organisation was touched to have been selected as a place to visit.

“We are honoured that The Duchess could experience and witness first-hand how we Nourish Our Country through our food rescue, education and engagement programs. To take the time on her trip to visit a little warehouse in Alexandria, and to learn more about what OzHarvest does, what we have achieved to date, and to share it with the world will make an enormous difference to our organisation and to the people who we touch every single day through the act of generosity.

“We hope that The Duchess will take pleasure in creating a few rescued recipes and find the gardening tips useful from our OzHarvest Urban Harvest cookbook! What a joy it truly was for all of our supporters and friends to experience Her Royal Highness at OzHarvest headquarters.”