Taking action to fight the nation’s growing food insecurity

Brand & Communications

Published on Oct. 31, 2023
5 min

Over the last 12 months Australians have been in financial turmoil, with the nation being subjected to price hikes, inflation, and supply chain constraints, making what were once staple goods challenging or too expensive to access.

According to the 2023 Foodbank Hunger Report, the cost-of-living crisis we now find ourselves in has seen nutritious meals being the first thing to go from the average Australian’s shopping list.

As many as 3.7 million households struggled to afford adequate food this year—a steep increase of 383,000 from 2022. Ninety-four percent of these food insecure households mitigated cost-of-living pressures by reducing food and grocery spend, with almost half sacrificing fresh produce.

We believe that everyone should have access to nutritious meals. It has formed a pillar of our global CSR Better Tomorrow roadmap, and guides our everyday practices.

As leaders in quality of life services, serving up thousands of meals every day to our clients and team, we know food. And we also know our responsibility when it comes to addressing food insecurity.

From making strides in reducing our food waste right through to waste-conscious sustainable supply chain purchasing, we are committed to Stop Hunger. Since partnering with Foodbank Australia in 2015, our corporate partnership has seen us engage with our local communities to tackle food insecurity.

Over the past eight years, our efforts have resulted in more than 465,000 meals delivered to Australians doing it tough, equating to roughly $232,590 in monetary support.

Part of this activity has been the support of the Key Staples Program, a vital service Foodbank provides in collaboration with Australian food manufacturers and suppliers. This program delivers reliable and cost-effective supply of essential staples—such as milk, rice, pasta, and canned goods—at wholesale or preferential prices, sometimes even at no cost.

But our partnership runs deeper than this, with many of our employees using their paid volunteer leave to participate in the preparation of meals for those in need—each of them living out Sodexo’s values of spirit of service and community responsibility.

Recently, some of our people took part once again in a week-long servathon on behalf of Foodbank in recognition of World Food Day, delivered in conjunction with Dolmio. Donning our aprons and working in shifts, by the week’s close more than 5,000 hot meals were served up to those experiencing significant food insecurity.

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Embedding ourselves within the communities in which we live and work is vital to ensuring we do our bit to make a difference to those who are struggling to put food on the table.

Our plight to Stop Hunger isn’t just seen through our ongoing partnership with Foodbank, but extends into some of our most remote communities.

While a quarter of households are severely food insecure, according to the 2023 Foodbank Hunger Report, food insecurity remains more prevalent in regional or rural areas where the average cost of goods is more expensive than metro locations due to increased freight costs.

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Earlier this year, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi Foundation Limited (NYFL) to deliver social and economic outcomes to the community of Ieramugadu (Roebourne).

By putting ‘pen to paper’ to formalise the partnership that has already been underway for many years, we have committed to supporting community empowerment, training pathways, employment, corporate knowledge sharing, and sustainable business enterprise.

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One business that has significantly benefited from our partnership is the Ieramugadu Store Maya which aims to address food insecurity in the community by providing quality food at low or no cost to those in need.

To battle food insecurity and ultimately Stop Hunger, we need to look at ways we can support metro and remote locations in accessing fresh, nutritious food. From education and awareness to physical access of staple necessities, we all have a role to play.

As we wrap up another year’s partnership with Foodbank Australia, we look forward to continuing to provide support to those in need by helping them access food and resources.