Packaging giant Tetra Pak has re-affirmed its commitment to Foodbank, pledging to continue its annual donation of packaged long life milk to the charity to pass on to community groups to feed the hungry.
Tetra Pak, in cooperation with partners including Murray Goulburn and the Australian government, provides Foodbank with 600,000 litres of long life milk each year.
This yearly supply of long life milk adds to the one million litres of chilled milk already supplied to Foodbank by the Australian dairy industry each year.
As well as helping the country's hungry, this supply of long life milk is also included in emergency food hampers and distributed to emergency relief operations.
To mark the extension of the partnership, Tetra Pak Oceania managing director Noel Ayre provided the charity with a ride-on floor sweeper for its warehouse in Wetherill Park in Sydney's west.
“Foodbank collects and distributes 25,000 tonnes of food, enough for 32 million meals each year. Milk and dairy products are highly valued because they are healthy, nutrient dense and versatile foods,” Foodbank Australia CEO John Webster said.
The charity also recently thanked Campbell’s Australia New Zealand, a division of the global Campbell Soup Company, for a donation of more than 160,000 cans of soup – representing 300,000 serves of vegetables.
The Campbell's donation also included the assistance of label company Labelmakers and local packaging giant Amcor.
The consignment of assorted vegetable soups was unlabelled and in bulk. Staff from Labelmakers and Amcor joined volunteers at the charity's warehouse in Victoria to apply simple labels to the cans and and pack them into cartons to facilitate distribution.
As the product is new stock with a long shelf life, it will be able to be distributed to the furthest reaches of the Foodbank network for dissemination to food relief agencies both in metropolitan and regional and remote areas, the charity said.
“Soup is an absolute mainstay of our food inventory as it is nutritious and easy to prepare lending itself to a variety of scenarios from prepared meal provision to emergency hampers,” Foodbank's Webster said.
“This donation represents 300,000 serves of vegetables which will be extremely sought after by charities which are looking to provide the most filling and healthy food they can.”
Tetra Pak Oceania managing director Noel Ayre helps Foodbank volunteers pack fresh food for Australians in need.
