Growing and rescuing food

The Food for Change Foundation
Role model. Big-hearted. Changemaker.

Matthew Donovan has founded a local charity that grows and rescues food to feed hungry people.

In the four years since its launch, Food for Change has grown and donated more than 135,000 meals and rescued more than 155,000 from going to waste.

The charity piggybacks on existing infrastructure and food is distributed to locals via organisations including Sacred Heart Mission, Matts Place at Cheltenham, the Kingston City Church, BayCISS and Lions club of Sandringham.

"My work aims to help both community health and address food insecurity, as well as benefit the environment by removing edible food from the food waste stream," Matthew says.

A differentiator of the charity is that its food collection is local and small-scale, which complements rather than duplicates the work of larger organisations.

Remarkably, Matthew has found time to get the charity off the ground and help it thrive despite being a devoted single dad and needing to earn an income.

He couldn't have done it with the support of charity colleagues and friends and family.

The charity has a farm site at Clayton South and partners with other organisations to facilitate growing programs on their land. It produces 10 healthy meals for every $2 donation.

Westfield Local Heroes are nominated and voted for by their communities, with the three top finalists per Westfield centre each awarded a $10,000 grant for their affiliated organisation. The Food for Change Foundation will use its grant to buy seed and other necessities to increase its food production significantly.

For further information on the Westfield Local Heroes program, click here