OzHarvest cooked meals program creates and delivers around 500-600 frozen, ready-to-eat meals every week for vulnerable communities in Newcastle. To provide additional food relief during COVID-19, more than 6,700 hampers were distributed to people in need throughout the Hunter region – that’s almost 250,000 meals!

The Nourish Program is a hospitality training program for young people aged 16-25 who typically face barriers to education, work and training. The 18-week program includes life skills, job-readiness coaching and support with post-program employment, training or study opportunities.

In Newcastle, OzHarvest partners with TAFE NSW to deliver a Certificate II in Cookery. The program, which is free of charge for participants, has two intakes of students in January and July each year.

In February 2021, Nourish launched in Newcastle thanks to Lendlease. This partnership enabled the launch of Nourish Newcastle, while also supporting the program nationally. Read about the launch here.

NEST is a six-week nutrition and health education program, teaching adults easy ways to cook and eat healthily on a budget through a series of practical and fun workshops.

Each NEST session is held at the same day and time each week for 2.5 hours. It includes fun interactive activities, practical cooking classes, and the sharing of a meal together.

The evidence-based program improves personal health, addresses food insecurity and is aligned with the Australian Dietary Guidelines. Our friendly team of nutritionists and dietitians work with everyone to set realistic goals around healthy eating, which are reviewed and revised each week, so real and lasting change can be made.