OzHarvest – Give a little love

OzHarvest is a food rescue organisation collecting quality excess food from commercial outlets and delivering it free of charge to charities across Australia. Lisa Dainty explains how businesses can get involved.

Corporate Engagement is part of our fabric. OzHarvest simply could not do all that we do without the investment, both financial and in time, which our corporate supporters and their staff provide to us.

OzHarvest recognises it is so important that when engaging corporate businesses we provide their staff opportunities to touch, feel and get involved in the work we do in a hands-on capacity. The impact of this is much greater than the company simply donating money alone. Many of our corporate participants have gone on to become financial donors, volunteers in their own time and enduring fans for life!

We also know that without the love of the many companies and donors that support us we would never be where we are today. This is summed up in our philosophy of ‘Give a Little Love’, which includes giving time, money or food or in kind support to our organisation. The difference between a company investing financial donations and having the physical participation and engagement with corporate employees is that it allows that personal connection with what we do in the areas of food rescue, education and engagement. This can have a long lasting positive impact on the wellbeing of employees and their motivation, the company as well as the wider community.

Corporate engagement with real impact happens when a company shares a great synergy with us, and we can work together to make the most of that connection. This might be through the service provided by the company, or with the product it manufactures – it might even just be that we share the aim of giving back something to the local (or greater) community. Whatever the connection with OzHarvest, we believe in actively working together with a company to create a rewarding partnership.

This is why we developed our key engagement program, Cooking for a Cause – a fun, hands-on cooking workshop, led by a professional chef, in a commercial kitchen where teams cook hundreds of meals ready for immediate distribution by the OzHarvest vans to those in need. It’s an unforgettable corporate team-building experience that is interactive, educational, inspiring and of course lots of fun – with a tangible social impact.  Throughout these sessions, OzHarvest also educates the team about the work we do in the community, the issue of food waste, food security and homelessness in Australia.

OzHarvest calculated our Social Return on Investment (SROI) with the help from Bain & Company, and found that for every $1 invested into OzHarvest there is a social benefit value of $5.68 returned to society. Of course, you cannot monetise the love, joy, dignity and respect felt by those who receive the food.

The benefits of staff participating in our Cooking for a Cause program are boundless. Getting the staff together to bond over a common goal encourages team cohesiveness and allows them to spend time together in a meaningful, fun and interactive environment. Not to mention the personal satisfaction for each person in knowing that they have contributed to those less fortunate in society. For the participating company, this goodwill flows on to create positive and charitable culture within an organisation’s greater staff engagement. Many studies show that providing staff volunteering opportunities leads on to greater employee retention.

Meaningful corporate engagement can’t just be a decision made at the top (although you certainly need management on board). Cooking for a Cause embodies inclusivity and involvement – if a company is serious about social responsibility, it is paramount that the staff, as well as management, are given an opportunity to participate and to be part of the relationship, and to personally feel the difference they can make.