00:00well today is a very special day obviously it's Christmas but our refettorio our beautiful
00:10restaurant which offers free meals to vulnerable or guests any any person six days a week is open
00:20today with a magnificent Christmas luncheon right behind me and our guests are streaming in so far
00:29I think we've already had around 75 or 80 where they are pulling bonbons they are sharing and
00:36breaking bread and it is a joy to see because many of these people would not and do not have
00:45anywhere else to go and how has demand been for Oz Harvest over the past couple of months
00:52all I can tell you is that the demand has never been greater in all my 21 years of running Oz Harvest
01:02we are seeing a whole new demographic people who have never needed food before people who have jobs
01:10families that two parents are working or single income families are just not managing to finish
01:18the week what we know is that today in Australia almost three and a half million families
01:27are needing food security at any time of the year and we're seeing this every day in our numbers
01:36the demand has gone up with this new demographic and with anyone else who has never needed food before
01:46Australia likes to pride itself on being a place where everyone gets given a fair go do you think
01:52Australia is living up to that
01:54quite honestly I don't think Australia is living up to the fair go right now because the disparity
02:02between the rich and the poor has never been greater and the truth is as a dual income family that both
02:11parents are working you couldn't they couldn't work anymore and yet their salaries are not finishing
02:18the month they're not allowing them to even cover the basic essentials more families than ever are
02:26telling us that they skipping a meal or they sending their kids to school without breakfast so there is
02:34something fundamentally wrong when there is enough food to feed everyone in our country and yet we are
02:41wasting a third of all of that food and our salaries are not supporting us to fulfill on core basic needs and
02:52so what do you think needs to happen to address that well I think that fundamentally we have to understand how we share what we've got in a more equitable way of
03:02in a more equitable way I think we have our system is broken our food system is broken I think we have to literally unpack and understand how we have reached a situation where almost 10 million Australians are hungry and what it's going to take to redesign our systems and it's going to take every single level of society it's going to take government it's going to take individuals it's going to take philanthropy
03:32it's going to take us it's going to take corporates all of us have to come together to understand the gravity of the situation in this abundant magnificent country how can it be that almost 10 million people at any time might need support from an organisation like OzHarvest.
03:54Now most importantly what's the address of the place behind you so people can go down there and get a feed if they need one?
04:01Well 481 Crown Street the food is flowing the bonbons are being pulled the cheer and the love is being felt and we absolutely encourage and invite we will be open for another couple of hours so please don't feel
04:23don't feel that you need to be alone our tables are waiting and we are just so grateful that I have about 25 volunteers in there supporting serving and sharing love that's what today is all about solidarity unity love joy and food.
04:46And is that Surry Hills or Darlow in Sydney?
04:49Surry that's Surry Hills 481 Crown Street Surry Hills.
04:53We've got to get those details correct.
04:55Okay Ronnie Khan thanks so much for having a chat to us.
04:58Absolutely.
04:59Thank you so much for having us here to be in the chat.
05:18We'll be there.
05:20Bye bye
