It’s a sad reflection of modern-day life that there’s a growing portion of the population across Australia that needs a hand in regularly putting food on the table for family members.

In southern Queensland alone, the Foodbank charity group is responsible for generating sufficient food ingredients to provide 75,000 meals each week.

That assistance might come in the form of putting breakfast in front of a young student whose home-life might mean they otherwise would go to school hungry, through to providing meals in refuges for battered wives, or simply helping-out those who are on the margins of society, for various reasons.  

Foodbank Australia is a national organisation established 15 years ago, dedicated to gathering and distributing donated foodstuffs among charities that help the needy. It doesn’t cook or prepare meals itself, but acts as a food collection and distribution ‘hub’ sourcing and supplying raw ingredients to up to 300 registered charities.

None of the food collected is past its use-by date or compromised in any way, and anybody would be happy to consume it.

Up to now, Foodbank’s focus has been on providing staples including bread, breakfast cereal and noodles as carb sources; milk; fruit and vegetables and dry grocery lines.

In the case of bread, Foodbank has established highly successful supply chains, linking donated farmers’ grain with millers who process it into flour, to bakers who bake it. Supermarket chains including Woolworths and Coles regularly supply large volumes of non-perishable grocery lines.

Nationally, large manufacturers donate two million litres of milk each year. Fruit and veg wholesale markets across the country regularly contribute surplus product into the network. Similarly, smallcrop farmers in areas like the Lockyer Valley frequently make donations of surplus or mis-shaped product.

In Queensland alone, Foodbank last year put nine million kilograms (that’s 9000 tonnes) of food through its Murarrie warehouse and cold storage facility. 

Beef seen as new frontier

Now the time has come to extend the program’s supply of red meat, and it’s here that beef producers across Australia can lend a hand.

While some large red meat processing companies like JBS already contribute to the Foodbank cause, supplying quantities of ground beef patties free of charge, there is still an enormous void left to fill.

Brisbane Centenary Rotary Club member Andrew Rodgers is the coordinator of Foodbank’s expanding food supply sub-program, called ‘BeefBank.’

The project had its genesis six years ago when Foodbank Queensland general manager Ken McMillan spoke to the Rotary Centenary Club and mentioned that while the organisation received large quantities of other foodstuffs, meat protein was not among them.

In an experiment, the club invested in five head of cattle and grew them out on Andrew’s small grazing property near Warwick.

“We had fun doing it, but the logistics of that were impractical,” he said.

The process has now been re-configured, and now focusses on the donation of a live animal, or animals, from beef producers across the country. Foodbank is registered as a Designated Gift Registry, meaning a tax-deductable receipt can be provided for the value of each animal.

The objective was not to put steaks or primal cuts on a plate, but to generate large quantities of manufacturing meat, in the form of frozen ground beef patties, which can be used in anything from bolognaise, burgers, pies, lasagne or dozens of other recipes.

“As a pure protein source, meat is meat, and mince offers the attraction of great versatility,” Andrew said. “We don’t want T-bone steaks for two reasons: it doesn’t go far enough, and it’s a bigger burden on a producer to donate a beast that is good enough to turn into steak.”

Andrew said a 280-300kg carcase weight cow had the potential to provide the red meat component of a meal to 1000-1500 needy people.

So far over the past six years, about 22 tonnes of ground beef has found its way into the program, through various channels, but the program is now moving to a new, better-coordinated and larger volume stage.

The donation process is designed to be as simple as possible, Andrew said.

“As far as the producer is concerned, all they have to do is tell us the beast will be there (either at the saleyard, the meatworks, or where collection can be arranged, in the station yards). We pay for it to be slaughtered, and processed into mince and sausages, and Foodbank picks it up from the butcher or processor.”

“We want to reduce the burden on the beef producer who wants to make a donation of a beast that would normally go into the manufacturing beef market, either as a one-off or on a more regular basis,” he said.

“It’s a win-win for everybody: they get the satisfaction of knowing they are making a contribution to a very worthy cause, using an animal which is of lesser value to them, and we pick up all the costs.”

If the producer is consigning the chosen beast as part of a line of other cattle heading to saleyards or direct to meatworks, all they have to do is notify the BeefBank program and appropriate arrangements can be made for transfer to a cooperating processor/butcher. In many more accessible areas, BeefBank can also organise for collection of donated cattle on-property.

The group now has agreements in place with a network of east coast abattoirs and butchers for slaughter and processing into mince, sausages and other items, either free or at very reasonable cost.

A number of large livestock transport companies had indicated that they would also contribute to the process, where a donated beast might be ‘number 20’ in a deckload of 20 cattle.

Processors of all sizes have already contributed to the project, from JBS Australia, down to small single-site operations like Rocky Point in far North Queensland and Carey Brothers at Warwick, near the Qld/ NSW border, which had been a major gathering point in the project so far. Sometimes product is stockpiled frozen at the plant, until quantities build to a ‘deliverable’ level.

The program also receives cash donations from various sources, including $50,000 recently via the Clem Jones Foundation. In those cases, the funds are used to go into the general market, where suitable cattle are bought and directed through the program in a similar way to donated animals.

Beef donated and processed in one part of a State or territory normally stays in that region, for distribution through the Foodbank network. In some cases, where better quality animals have been donated to the program, the processor retains the better quality cuts, and the equivalent weight and value in ground trim is provided to Foodbank.

At the bigger end of town, Foodbank is also working with larger pastoral companies to develop a similar donor program, only using larger multiples of animals involved. Former NFF president David Crombie is leading that project.

The BeefBank project had its genesis in Brisbane, but supply of beef from different areas has already gone into Sydney and Melbourne Foodbank programs as well.

One of the often-asked questions is how secure the cold chain behind the BeefBank program is, with donors understandably wary about being implicated with food safety issues, should the product not be handled properly.

The FoodBank warehouse facilities are equipped with some of the most modern and well-appointed freezing facilities around, under a Government supported infrastructure program, and all deliveries are made using registered refrigerated vehicles.

Beef Central will provide occasional updates on how the BeefBank project is going, as it develops in coming months.  

Producers wanting to know more about the project or how to make a donation can contact Andrew Rodgers on 0411 708 419 or email Andrew@beefbank.org

• Andrew Rodgers will speak on the BeefBank project during the AgForce state conference being held in Charleville this week.