A win for Australia and a win for WA families!

Australia’s blistering victory over England in the first Ashes Test – wrapped up in just two days

(a feat we haven’t seen on Australian soil since 1932 not to mention that the last time an Ashes Test finished inside two days was in 1921!)

– didn’t just thrill cricket fans. It also sparked an unexpected wave of generosity from Optus Stadium straight into the hearts and homes of Western Australians doing it tough.

With the match ending so swiftly (sorry, England), Theme Group and Optus Stadium suddenly found itself with a mountain of perfectly good, unused food that was destined for hungry crowds who… well… didn’t get the chance to be hungry for very long. Rather than let anything go to waste, the stadium team swung into action and generously donated the surplus straight to Foodbank WA.

And just like the Aussie batting lineup – we made good use of every opportunity.

Thanks to the donation countless households and charity partners across the metro area received high-quality ingredients and fresh meal components. This included 576kg of fresh vegetables (a mixture of bulk and individual portions) meaning households had access to delicious pre-cut and ready to eat veggies and our Community Kitchen received a load of fresh high-quality vegetables to turn into healthy meals which will be distributed all over the state. We were also lucky to receive an array of delicious sandwiches – 220kg to be exact.

Perhaps most impressively, we got 5,200kg (or 6 pallets) of much-needed fresh milk out to our regional branches, where reliable supply can be harder to get than English runs in Perth.

This unexpected food windfall turned a historic cricket moment into meaningful impact for communities right across WA. A huge thank you to Theme Group and Optus Stadium and their partners for hitting this one out of the ground – proof that even a two-day Test can deliver big results off the field.