About Us

Our Mandate

Loaves and Fishes Tasmania delivers food and hope to locals doing it tough.

Our vision is for all Tasmanians to have access to enough affordable, safe, nutritious, tasty food.

Loaves and Fishes is a faith-based organisation motivated by the life of Jesus who fed a large, hungry crowd when he multiplied a few loaves and fish, and who calls us to serve others with justice and compassion, regardless of an individual's personal beliefs or circumstances. Our staff, volunteers, food partners and recipient agencies come from a variety of faith and secular backgrounds.

We rescue surplus food from landfill, repackage and enhance what we're given, including making ready-to-eat meals and school meals, then deliver free statewide through about 350 partner agencies.

Loaves and Fishes also provides employment opportunities for disadvantaged Tasmanians, is part of a coalition working to address the causes of food insecurity, and does for-profit work through various social enterprise contracts to fund our emergency relief efforts.

We don't give food directly to individuals or families. Contact us to find your local food relief provider.

Our History

Loaves and Fishes Tasmania started in 2018 under an agreement with SecondBite to continue and expand on its Tasmanian emergency food relief work.

Aaron Kropf, former Tasmanian State manager of SecondBite and a qualified chef, joined Loaves and Fishes Tasmania as general manager after meeting Devonport Chaplaincy CEO, Andrew Hillier, who was trying to source food for school breakfast programs in the North-West.

Loaves and Fishes became a social enterprise charity under the banner of Devonport Chaplaincy Incorporated, a Public Benevolent Institution (PBI) registered with the Australian Charities and Not For Profit Commission. and offering tax deductibility for donations.

Meals, Training, Condiments and Catering

Aaron and Andrew saw the potential and need to start a Devonport kitchen that would produce ready-to-eat meals and offer training opportunities for at-risk youth, those with disabilities, and the unemployed.

They also saw the opportunity to help school children and their families by providing breakfast clubs state-wide as a means of chaplains and volunteers being able to connect with pupils and identify needs.

They established a Devonport kitchen capable of producing up to 10,000 meals a week, and developed a condiments range for sale online and through select retail outlets, as well as a catering business and food production facility to help fund the emergency food relief work.

Valuing Partners

Loaves and Fishes Tasmania couldn’t exist without thousands of extraordinary food, financial and in-kind supporters, community agencies, Government, employment providers, ambassadors and generous donors and volunteers.

Each week we collect or receive 25,000 kg of food conservatively worth about $75,000. Food is donated from charity partners, supermarkets, farms and orchards, bakeries, the livestock industry, community, and school gardens and individuals.

Some partners such as Montrose Bay High School, Risdon Prison and Don College not only grow food, but make meals which they donate back to us for distribution to those in need.

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Major partners