to the (food) rescue.

I first came across OzHarvest in Peppermint magazine, then I heard Ronni Kahn speak at a Macarthur Future Food Forum event and I am totally behind this initiative! Ozharvest rescues surplus food from restaurants, retailers, food outlets, hotels and corporate kitchens and delivers it to 420 different organisations that provide meals for people in need, all in around 15 vans!

"Ozharvest gather food and distribute over 441, 500 meals per month."

I was so happy to see the Ozharvest van visiting my local Aldi, I think I freaked the van driver out, wondering why I was smiling so enthusiastically at him.

I was over the moon when I saw Virgin's add about their new campaign: Meal for a meal.
All you have to do is snap a picture of your food, hashtag it with #mealforameal and Virgin will donate money to Ozharvest to enable them to deliver meals to the needy. They're aiming to deliver over 400, 000 meals through the meal for a meal campaign. So I encourage you, jump on board with this fantastic initiative, the odds are you're already snapping photos of your meals, why not turn it into a meal for someone else. And if you like what you hear about Ozharvest and you want to know more or even buy their cookbook (with left-over meals from Maggie Beer, George Calombaris and Bill Granger), head over to ozharvest.org

The figures... Across Australia, we throw away the equivalent of $7.8 billion dollars worth of food every year. When it goes to landfill, food waste is Australia's second largest source of methane.

There are around 105 000 homeless Australians and 60 000 low-income families who often go without proper meals.

teach a man to fish.

Ever heard the saying: 'Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime'...? The key to this is the significance of empowerment. Providing sustainable livelihoods is vital to contributing to the health and wellbeing of an individual, and for a community.

To me, this proverb speaks of training, and this post is about exactly that.

After a variety of job changes, my husband decided what he really wanted to do was make coffees. (Make coffees?! Alright, I thought, not what I expected but go for it!) With minimal experience in hospitality, we thought it would be hard for him to get a job, but pretty soon there was a wise cafe manager who was prepared to give him a chance. He started off as the kitchen hand and has now been trained in food prep, cold drinks, hot drinks and waitering. He's even started a certificate in hospitality!

A few weeks ago he got a very generous tip from some happy customers. He went to lifeline and bought a second hand coffee machine to practice his barista skills at home. He's getting pretty good at free pouring, see picture below. Now what those customers didn't know is that Matt and I have been looking for opportunities to go back to India. Our passion is working towards empowering the disadvantaged to provide sustainable livelihoods. I'm very keen to work with artisans to collaborate on Fair Trade textiles but Matt wasn't sure what he would do. Now we're looking for an opportunity for Matt to use his new found cafe skills to improve livelihoods for the disadvantaged in India. We're 'keeping our eyes peeled' as his journey continues.

teach a man to fish... or in this century, make coffees?!

mother fish.

I've been on the look out for movies about justice issues that 'The Justice Project Macarthur' can show at a future event. I must say, I think I've found a huge contender.

'Mother Fish' is an incredibly moving story about two refugee sister from Vietnam. I won't spoil any elements of the movie, except to say that I felt like I was watching a stage performance (If anyone's looking for a script to pick up for a new play I'd seriously recommend this one!)

These girls are incredible actresses. I was hugely impressed by the impact that was created through close up angles of the characters with minimal background.

I'm so keen to show this movie and I'd really recommend buying or borrowing it from your local movie store or library (It's available at Camden Library for those that live in my local area).

just food. eat seasonally.

"With my husband out of the kitchen this week,

I have cooked up bangin' sustainable meals every night!"

This Weeks Meals
Asian Seasonal Broth with tofu wontons*
Pad Thai (the best I've ever made)
Pumpkin & Walnut Ravioli with Beetroot and Pear (made it up!)
Orzo Seasonal Salad* (with Roast chicken wrapped in bacon for my husband)
Lentil Burgers* with pineapple and baby spinach

Inspired by 'The Just Food Festival' hosted by the Justice Project in February of this year, I started a journey to become more sustainable in what I buy, cook and eat. Well, I did have a bit of a head start, I'm already a vegetarian! But I do cook meat for my husband.

Armed with the Oxfam seasonal food guide and seasonalfoodguide.com, I started out by buying in season. So its taken me a few months but I finally found a process that works for me! I plan my meals based around what fruit and vegetables are in season.

Of course it helps when the recipe tells you what season to cook it in! My husband bought me 'The Sustainable Table' Cookbook, which I love!!! Not only does it have interesting articles about the recipe contributors (Including Costa Georgiardis from Costa's Garden Odyseey SBS, key figures in Farmers Markets, Recipe Clubs, Top Restaurants and my favourite Illustrator and Children's Author Graeme Base) but it also has fantastic info about Global Food Security, Organic farming and Sustainable Meat and Fish! *Thanks Sustainable Table!Now, my household is a post-modern one and I am (most of the time!) proud to say my husband does most of the cooking in our house. This can be particularly challenging if I've made a meal plan and he just cooks as he feels. I was reading some tips on meal planning and one said that if you get your kids involved in meal planning they're more likely to eat what you cook. So my logic followed: get your husband involved in the meal planning and he'll end up cooking what you planned him to cook! It's worked so far!