Two of the state’s biggest food charities have teamed up to make millions of meals for Queenslanders in need. Food Bank and Fare Share are ready to cook up a storm.

Anna Graham reports.

TRANSCRIPT

It’s the largest charity kitchen in the southern hemisphere and it’s right here in Brisbane.

The Premier was clearly impressed.

Annastacia Palaszczuk, Queensland Premier: “This is an incredible work where they’ve come together for the betterment of Queenslanders. And we know out there that a lot of people are doing it tough.”

The basketball court-sized kitchen boasts huge cooking equipment and 400 local volunteers ready to use it.

Brendan Dickson, Wiley: “What it provides for the community is definitely an asset. I think there should be more of it.”

The kitchen will produce thousands of top-quality meals every day but at low cost.

Michael Rose, CEO Food Bank Queensland: “These meals will be highly nutritious, we’ll be able to cryovac them and freeze them, it allows us to then transport those meals right throughout the state at a cost much less than we could do if we were transporting the raw ingredients.”

Food Bank distributed 37 million kilograms of unwanted meat and vegetables last year but the Fare Share kitchen has even higher goals.

It’s estimated the new kitchen will use 500 tonnes of rescued food to create over a million meals in its first year.

Marcus Godinho, CEO FareShare: “The potential is there to scale up to five million meals a year, we just need Queenslanders to rally behind this kitchen.”

Anna Graham, QUT News.