One grain at a time: grain growers give back with Foodbank

Charity can begin right at the very start of the food chain. This harvest, grain farmers have the opportunity to donate a portion of their crop to Foodbank Australia, the country’s largest food relief organisation.

The charity has partnered with GrainCorp to help growers donate to a Grain Bank, which will be a source of supply for manufacturing key staple foods. The food produced from the Grain Bank will be distributed to charities around Australia to help feed those in need.

Foodbank is asking growers to enter into a donation contract with GrainCorp to donate grain either from the new harvest or last season’s leftovers. Leftover grain parcels can often be too small to sell commercially, but Foodbank accepts donations from as little as one tonne of any grade. For donations under 10 tonnes, GrainCorp will waive all storage fees for the transfer.

The grain will be milled and manufactured into breakfast cereal, bread and pasta, which will produce millions of meals for people in need. Just one tonne of grain can produce enough cereal to provide 20,000 breakfasts.

“We are the pantry of Australia’s charities,” said John Webster, CEO of Foodbank Australia. “Staples form the backbone of our food provision to those who are providing front-line food relief. Already we cannot rely on getting enough of these from our traditional food-rescue channels and the need is only growing.”

“Foodbank has annual targets of over 1000 tonnes each of breakfast cereal and pasta,” Webster said. “We have all the other ingredients and manufacturing services lined up so grain is the final missing link in achieving our targets.”

Over a third of the agencies Foodbank supplies are located in rural and remote areas, said Alison Watkins, managing director of GrainCorp. This means that the very same communities that donate to Foodbank may benefit from it.

Growers can download a donation form online to transfer the donation to a special Foodbank grain account. GrainCorp will arrange the transfer of the individual donations and transfer it for manufacturing. Foodbank will provide a tax donation receipt for all donations.

The form is available at www.graincorp.com.au/storage-and-logistics/agreement-forms. Alternatively, growers can call GrainCorp on 1800 809 482 and select option 2 to request a grower-to-grower transfer form.