United we stand in support of the hungry

Partnerships built on strong, enduring relationships are the only way Loaves and Fishes can feed a hungry State. The need is too great, the costs too high for any one organisation to carry the load, or take the credit.

We’re thankful for emergency food partners SecondBite and Foodbank in helping to meet the urgent and widespread food needs of Tasmanians.

Loaves and Fishes is the only State-based emergency food relief organisation, supplying 60 per cent of the State’s food relief through almost 350 community-based programs.

Loaves and Fishes Tasmania was born in 2018 under an agreement to take over and expand on the work begun more than a decade earlier in Tasmania by SecondBite.

CEO Andrew Hillier and I worked for several years to establish a State-based food supplier for Tasmania. We did this collaboratively with SecondBite, agreeing to take over their Tasmanian work and introduce ready-to-eat meals.

As part of the agreement, SecondBite kindly gave us vehicles, a warehouse, and access to surplus food from Coles supermarkets and its many other partners. We have since nurtured those relationships and invested in many more.

In the past few weeks, SecondBite sent us 45 pallets of chicken, lamb, beef and and pork worth about $90,000. Meat is a product we struggle to get donated, and is expensive to buy, but adds variety and an important source of protein to our ready-to-eat meals.

SecondBite has also started sending us fruit and vegetables and other vital products. We’re thankful.

Before Christmas, our friends at Foodbank gave us hundreds of kilos of much-needed vegetables. We’re in constant dialogue with them to maximise our effectiveness without duplication.

We’ve learned that cooperation is much more effective than competition in the emergency food relief space, and that healthy relationships require honesty, trust and communication.

We are proud to be a part of the emergency relief sector, and to work alongside SecondBite and Foodbank in delivering food and hope to Tasmanians doing it tough.

Our warehouse in Don Road is also home to Devonport institution, Gran’s Van, serving hot food and non-perishables and distributing blankets, sleeping bags and toiletries to the region’s poor and homeless. Loaves and Fishes supplies food and warehouse space to our partners.

By Aaron Kropf, general manager, Loaves and Fishes Tasmania.