New Funding To Fight Food Waste

VISY Sustainability GrantThe VISY Sustainability Grant, a new community scheme to reduce the amount of edible food waste going into the city’s landfills, is being launched by City of Gold Coast and leading recycler VISY.

The Pratt Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the family which owns VISY, is providing up to $50,000 in 2014-15, with a further $25,000 possible in 2015-16 to fund eligible community organisations who want to make a difference by channelling safe and nutritious food to disadvantaged or vulnerable people on the Gold Coast.

The grants support new or existing initiatives that reduce food waste from our city’s hospitality, food wholesale, manufacturing and retail industries. Mayor Tom Tate welcomed the new scheme, which he said will benefit the whole community.

“Reducing waste going into landfill is our top priority, because it saves money and helps to reduce the impact on our unique environment,” he said.

“Getting restaurants and other food businesses on board with finding ways to reduce perfectly good, safe food from being binned makes sense. It helps those in our community with the most need, cuts the waste bill for ratepayers, and reduces the volume of waste going into landfill.”

VISY’s General Manager for Resource Recovery, Gary Whitehead, said his organisation was pleased to be able to help make a difference on the Gold Coast.

“The Gold Coast is an important base for VISY, so we were pleased to be able to support community waste and recycling initiatives through the Pratt Foundation,” he said.

“There’s no more obvious place to target food waste than here in Australia’s tourism capital. The abundance of hospitality venues and services inevitably generates excess food capacity, so we are excited to be able to fund projects to help see some of that edible waste, often of a very high quality, be used to feed people who need a little extra help.”

Applications for funding through the VISY Sustainability Grant are open to organisations operating within City of Gold Coast boundaries.

Applicant organisations must also have Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status. Applications must be received by 21 November 2014. Contact 1300 GOLD COAST for details.

Read about our commitment to reducing waste at greengc.com.au.

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