A year ago Vikings Group pledged a year of fundraising for their Charity of the Year, OzHarvest Canberra, and earlier this month announced that the Group raised $63,385.

In addition to the $63,385 raised, Vikings Group staff volunteered 152 hours of their time rescuing food and delivering it to those in need in the Canberra community to support OzHarvest in its mission to eliminate hunger and educate the Canberra community about food waste and how to prevent it.

Vikings Group ran a range of fundraising events, including can drives, trivia nights, Yoga events, game day donations throughout the rugby season and a major fundraising gala ball.

After two successful years running the program, Vikings Group CEO Anthony Hill says he is proud of the contribution the group has made to the community in such a short period of time.

“The team has once again surpassed expectations, going above and beyond to achieve an incredible fundraising goal for OzHarvest. It’s been a pleasure working alongside Dave and the OzHarvest team,” he says. “We’d also like to thank the Vikings Group Members and the Canberra community, we couldn’t achieve this result without their support.”

Charity of the Year aims to support Canberra charities through fundraising and awareness raising activities, and by building lasting relationships with charities in the region.

“This was an important partnership for us, we always try to be conscious of waste and felt we could do more to support people in our community who might not always have regular meals,” Anthony said.

On average, Australians throw away $8 to $10 billion of food every year, which equates to about $1,036 worth of groceries a year for one household. With these statistics there are still two million people across Australia who rely on food relief every year.

OzHarvest ACT Territories Manager, Dave Burnet, is grateful for all the support over the last 12 months.

“This donation will help us deliver over 120,000 meals! We are very grateful for Vikings’ support and its contribution to the Canberra community,” Dave says.