Our Story
The team is comprised of committed volunteers with a shared passion for reducing waste and helping the community.
82,656 families received food from one of our 4 depot locations in 2023
We will not discriminate, judge or label any community members who find themselves needing our services. We are open to everyone!
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it's the only thing that ever has" - Margaret Mead
Back in 2017, the idea for this bold organisation started during an afternoon reverie in a cafe. At closing time with the cabinets still boasting various types of goodies, founder Christina McBeth thought "what happens to the leftovers, surely they don't get thrown out?" As it turned out, much of it was! Motivated and determined, Christina, her friend and co-founder Louise Saurin decided to pitch their idea of food rescue to several of their local cafes. Their idea was well received, so after much lobbying of the local council, advertising on social media and organising many keen volunteers, Nourished for Nil was born!
We are a local non-profit organisation with a simple system, rescuing food from donors to recipients in the space of mere hours.
We launched on 14 February 2017 and in the first week we served 323 people, rescued 690 food items and redistributed an estimated 40kg of fruit.
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As a nation, we waste around $1.17 billion a year on food that we buy and throw away uneaten. That is 33% fresh fruit and vegetables, 27% leftovers, 15% packaged and long life products, 9% drinks and frozen items, and 7% take-a-ways.
Add to that the staggering 20 - 40 per cent of fresh fruit and veggies that never even make it to the supermarket shelves because they don’t fall within consumer standards.
Food waste that goes to the landfill breaks down and produces methane gas. This is 21% more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.
If food waste around the world was reduced by 25%, we could feed everyone on the planet