Each week Soul Hub collects an average 408.8kg of rescued food. By the end of 2022, we had recorded 21,529kgs of rescued food, all collected by our courier team. This figure does not include donations of goods by individuals, organizations or businesses.
If you live in Newcastle, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the Soul Ute out and about rescuing and collecting foods. A ute generously donated to us by Daracon Group.
At about 9am the team start their day. First up are Coles, we collect from Waratah, Mayfield, Kotara and Markettown. Each day on average we rescue about 50kgs of fruit, vegetables and bread from Coles. We’ve become good friends with the employees at Coles and they always look after us each visit.
We then made our way down to The Butchery On Brunker Newcastle. A local butcher that has been a staple of the community since 1963. They fill our crates with some of the finest meats they can source and give to us with a smile and an open hand.
Next up on the list is a local favorite, The Grumpy Baker who donate their amazing range of delicious home cooked breads, pastries and desserts. We pick up from them at least twice a week but somehow every day they still surprise us with a new dessert or range of bread to pass onto our guests.
Finally, our friends at Gateway Community Table donate a Ute full of chicken, pies, sweets and ice creams for us to distribute to our guests. They encourage us to take as much as we can and fill the Ute – how good are some people?
Soul absolutely hates food waste of any kind, so when we received 100kgs of donated chicken necks that we couldn’t use, we drove to the RSPCA NSW at Rutherford to help enable the amazing team there to provide for their guests – rescued animals.
Everything that comes through our doors is funneled directly back into the community. If we are ever given something we cannot use ourselves, we ensure it is given to another charitable organization who could benefit from it.
