As Australia's leading food rescue organisation, the OzHarvest crew know a thing or two about turning unloved ingredients into bloody good grub. Alongside their community food banks, food trucks, youth education programs and not-for-profit café Refettorio, the good folks at OzHarvest run zero-waste, team-building cooking classes, helping groups of do-gooding Sydneysiders cook nourishing meals for those who need it most.
Since its humble beginnings in 2004, OzHarvest’s yellow army has served more than 250 million meals to vulnerable people across Australia. The Time Out Sydney team traded their ‘suits’ for the day and headed to OzHarvest’s HQ in Alexandria to experience first-hand what Cooking for a Cause is all about.
Prepare yourself: it’s not just the onions that will bring tears to your eyes in this 2.5-hour cooking lesson. Our chefs, James and Emily, kicked off the class by sharing some mind-boggling food-waste facts – did you know Aussies waste 7.6 million tonnes of food each year, 70 per cent of which is perfectly edible? – and educating us on how OzHarvest is tackling the problem. We then split into two groups and put our cooking skills to the test.
OzHarvest improvises its menu based on the ingredients donated from its network of 2,000 food donors – a big portion comes from supermarkets, but also delis, hotels and airlines.
On our visit, half the team made lentil, carrot and cheese fatayers, and were guided through the entire cooking process, from rolling the dough to shaping the pastry pies. Meanwhile, the other half of our team took up lamb kofta duty and created a fresh cauliflower, apricot and bulgur salad as well as tzatziki to serve alongside.
Throughout the cooking class, the zero-waste wizards taught us nifty tips and tricks, from learning the art of onion chopping to embracing root-to-shoot cooking. We then dished our day’s work into boxes destined to feed around 30 families, with OzHarvest’s yellow vans delivering these meals to charities around Sydney. Plus, we got to tuck into our creations, too (and we did good! Our food was pretty darn tasty).
OzHarvest runs Cooking for a Cause sessions every weekday at their HQ in Alexandra, welcoming groups from eight to 80 people. It's $175 per person, but your investment doesn't just cover the class – it supports OzHarvest's ambitious goal to cut food waste in half by 2030, while nourishing the local community at the same time. They even run after-dark sessions, including a three-course sit-down meal or stand-up cocktail-style event, and family classes during the school holidays.
The main takeaway from our cooking class at OzHarvest: not all heroes wear capes – they also wear yellow aprons. You can book your very own Cooking for a Cause session here.
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