Catherine Velisha, Velisha Farms

“If we, as a society, are able to change our mindset and be more accepting of produce in all their states, including appearance, then that would be one of the greatest changes we could see for our industry.”

To celebrate International Women’s Day, we thought it timely to put a spotlight on some of the incredible women who are helping Foodbank Victoria put food on the table for vulnerable Victorians.

We caught up with Catherine Velisha, Managing Director of Velisha Farms, to chat about her journey within the family business, life on the farm and how we can all support our local farmers and growers.

From working in her father’s packing facilities and the wholesale markets during her 20s, to becoming managing director of the family business in her 30s, Catherine Velisha is paving the way for women in the food and agriculture industry.

Catherine is the third generation in her family to embark upon a career in horticulture. Her Grandfather Abas Velisha, along with his brothers Mendu and ‘Uncle Jim,’ started vegetable farming in Australia in 1949. They were one of Australia’s first exporters of cauliflower and broccoli. Catherine joined the business in 2004 alongside her father, Veli Velisha.

“I started in the family business when I was 19, serving in various roles, from packing produce to trading at Melbourne’s wholesale market. I recently took over the business three years ago. It’s been a fun ride,” she recalls.

Since taking the reigns, Catherine has led Velisha Farms to greater pastures, establishing farming regions in Caldermeade, Lang Lang, Gippsland, Shepparton and various interstate locations, in addition to the Werribee South operation. Today, the farm grows more than just broccoli and cauliflower, producing a wide range of brassicas like celery, zucchini and iceberg lettuce.

As managing director, Catherine describes her role as “dynamic and exciting” with no one day the same.

With more than fifteen years in the family business, Catherine has seen the industry change and evolve.

“Our farmers and growers are in the media a lot more. There’s more discussion around food security, waste and where our food comes from. I think this is very exciting for our industry as its attracting a diversity of people who may have never considered working in agriculture.”

Catherine suggests this has been a positive step forward for the sector as businesses welcome a greater diversity of people and are encouraged to think about their waste.

“Our leadership team is constantly looking at ways to minimise our waste. We give our green waste to a local lamb farm, we donate out of spec vegetables and left over produce from Melbourne’s wholesale market to organisations like Foodbank Victoria, and we’re always looking at ways we can turn unwanted produce into something buyers would want to take home with them.”

When asked what we can all do to support our local farmers and growers, Catherine says,

“I think all of us, even we as producers, can sometimes take for granted the level of input that goes into producing fresh produce – the manpower, the water and the environment. If we, as a society, are able to change our mindset and be more accepting of produce in all their states, including appearance, then that would be one of the greatest changes we could see for our industry.”

Leading a team of 50 to 70 staff members at the Werribee farm including many women who work in various roles, Catherine describes working with people as the most enjoyable part of her job.

“The people I work with is what I love most about working in the horticulture industry. The success of our business is all thanks to our people. I’ve loved watching them grow, myself grow alongside them and our business growing along with us.”

Velisha Farms regularly donate fresh vegetables to Foodbank Victoria. These vegetables are made available to charity organisations right across the State for use in their community pantries, dining halls and food releif programs.

Click here to read more inspiring stories from some of the farmers and growers whelping us provide vital food relief and support to Victorians in crisis.

Meet our Farmers & Growers

Community spirit – a beacon of hope in Gippsland’s bushfire affected communities

“It was like a hailstorm of embers, you couldn’t even see. And when the embers finished falling, everything was on fire.”

Meet Brian and Julie, a Sarsfield couple we caught up with at ADRA Bairnsdale’s bushfire recovery centre. ADRA’s just one of our 12 partners in the bushfire impacted regions, helping distribute Foodbank’s emergency food relief hampers to communities in need.

As the fires peaked on the hills above their property, Brian made the difficult choice to stay and fight for his home. As the embers gathered speed and invaded his property, Brian battled the blaze all through the night, making heartbreaking choices about what to save and what to let burn. He lost his treasured garden, a tractor, his front staircase and there was severe damage to an exterior retainer wall – but he feels lucky that his home still stands.

“There’s no longer many trees around the place. All you can see is all the houses that have gone. It’s a bit confronting,” said Brian.

For a small town of 652 residents, more than 130 Sarsfield residents have been displaced by the recent fires. The fires impacted more than 70 percent of homes – 66 were lost.

To help make things a little easier, Brian and Julie have been accessing emergency food and water relief through ADRA Bairnsdale as they join their neighbours on the long journey to recovery.

“The food relief really helps to take a load off your mind. We are still in the process of rebuilding the front of our home and it takes time.”

“The fight isn’t over, it’s going to take at least a year for the community of Sarsfield to recover,” Brian continued.

Despite the significant and devasting loss, the community spirit, resilience and human kindness in the region is sincerely heart-warming.

Beyond the local charities and relief and recovery centres, the Sarsfield Recreation Reserve has been hosting weekly shared meals to help bring the community together. Each week a different organisation and group helps to cater the event with the community bonding over the different cuisines and their shared experiences.

The Nowa Nowa Men’s Choir has also been lifting spirits through song and raising funds to invest back into the nearby communities.

To try and make things easier for Gippsland communities, Foodbank Victoria joined the Sarsfield Community for a twilight pop-up market, bringing in our Farms to Families truck loaded with free fresh fruit and vegetables to the community.

In addition to stocking local pantries, some of the produce purchased with bushfire funds is making its way to farm kitchens to help feed the volunteer tradies who’ve travelled great distances to help rebuild fences, clear the land, and get farming communities back on their feet.

We recently visited ADRA Bairnsdale to make sure they had additional water, food and supplies to continue helping their community through recovery. Merilyn, the Manager at ADRA Barinsdale left a message of thanks for all of your support.

View a timeline of our bushfire response.

School Spotlight: Tarneit P-9 College

Tarneit P-9 College, in Werribee, enrols over 1,700 students and, for more than three years, School Breakfast Club has been an important start to the day. Around 80 students are served breakfast, four days a week.

We chatted to Billie Voican, the school’s Food Tech assistant, who organises their Breakfast Club, to find out how the program is going. Billie told us that the school introduced lunches when they became available in Term 3 last year. They provide students with the tuna, rice and vegetable lunch bowls, apples, fruit cups and milk. This year they’re happy to explore the extra options on the menu.

Billie said “Being a mum of three, it was initially quite confronting for me to realise how many students would go hungry if we didn’t have a Breakfast Club – including the lunches that are now provided.  There is a big need for the supply of food. So, we are very glad to be able to rely on Foodbank Victoria to meet that need. However, beyond the food, the other major benefit of the Program is a social one.

“Teachers and students and, our older and younger grades come together to enjoy breakfasts and also eat lunch together.  Everyone is welcome to attend breakfasts and, the lunches are distributed to those who need them.

“We encourage students to go to their teacher if they don’t have lunch. The teacher will then write a note which is handed to me, so I know who needs lunch.

“I have noticed that there is often a link between a student’s behavioural problems and being hungry.  Offering lunch as well as breakfast has made all the difference to those students.

“We serve around 10 lunches a day. Our teachers understand that some students may never bring lunch from home, and we are happy to be able to ensure that no one goes hungry at breakfast or lunch time, because we can rely on the program.”

Read more School Breakfast Club stories

New partnership helps Foodbank look after others

Here at Foodbank Victoria, we are proud to announce that Emma & Tom’s has joined the fight against hunger! To celebrate the launch of their new Look After Others water,  Emma and Tom’s will offer a percentage of every bottle sold in the new range to Foodbank Victoria.

Emma Welsh, co-founder of Emma & Tom’s, visited our Yarraville warehouse to showcase the new Look After Yourself bottle design which features the Foodbank logo.

“We are excited to launch a product that is dedicated to supporting the important work by Foodbank Victoria,’ said Welsh.

“We have always believed that part of being in business is to give back to our community. With stockists Australia wide, we are inspiring our dedicated customers to help raise awareness and join the fight against hunger on a national scale,” Welsh continued.

Dave McNamara, CEO of Foodbank Victoria, showed Welsh around the Yarraville warehouse, stating:

“We’re thrilled to have Emma & Tom’s on board to help support our food relief efforts and see this as a great alignment of the values underpinning both our organisations.”

“Our research shows the demand for food relief is increasing. We’re already helping about 140,000 Victorians every month who can’t put food on the table, but there are another 8,000 potentially missing out because we need more resources to reach them.

This partnership will allow Foodbank Victoria to close that gap and provide more Victorians access to healthy food,” he continued.

Access to nutritionally rich food and drinks is also at the core of Emma & Tom’s business philosophy. Since establishing in 2004, the organisation has made it a priority to regularly donate products to local and national food charities.

The new Emma & Toms Look After Others water will be available in Australian supermarket shelves and stockists soon. Don’t forget to keep an eye on our Facebook page as we reveal the new design.

Responding to Victoria’s bushfire crisis

On December 31 2019, Foodbank Victoria was activated as the State Government’s official emergency food and water relief organisation under the Emergency Relief and Recovery Plan. With the support and generosity of our friends, partners and the wider community, we responded – distributing emergency food, water and supplies to fire-affected communities in East Gippsland. Here is a timeline of our response.

The first emergency relief consisting of 256 food hampers, water and snacks were sent to Bairnsdale Racecourse Recovery Centre by truck.

650 food hampers, snacks and 10 pallets of water were delivered via rig tender ‘Far Senator’ to Mallacoota as all roads were cut.

Following a social media post detailing our first response, we received an influx of generous offers from the community who were desperate to help. For the first time in history, we opened our doors to accept donations from the general public. Over 200 cars showed up at our warehouse to donate food, water and supplies.

Our team of 20 staff and volunteers quickly grew to 100 people as we welcomed more than 900 drive-through donations. Our volunteers packed 1,050 hampers of essential items including groceries, toiletries and ‘grab n go’ meals. Six Army trucks delivered 48 pallets of water and 1,440 hampers to East Sale for road and air distribution into remote communities.

Today marked our third-day accepting donations from the general public, who flocked to our warehouse in the thousands eager to help those in need. More than 1,300 cars, trucks, trailers, horse floats and wheelbarrows lined up at our doors to donate much-needed food and supplies, while 130 volunteers continued to greet visitors, sort donations and pack hampers.

More than 550 vehicles stopped by our warehouse – luckily we’d enlisted the help of traffic management. 45 staff and 90 volunteers were all hands on deck, continuing to sort and pack emergency hampers. The community response was incredible.

Two truckloads of supplies including 960 hampers and six pallets of water made their way to Bairnsdale Airport to be airlifted into isolated regions with the help of the Australian Army. US superstar Lizzo made a special visit, helping to pack hampers and thank our volunteers for their hard work. A further 128 vehicles stopped by our warehouse with more food, water and essential items.

Over the next three days, more than 460 vehicles visited our warehouse to drop off donations, before our warehouse would close to the general public on Sunday 12 January, 5pm. As our team continued to sort and pack hampers, we called upon the community to support our efforts financially, with every $1 donation allowing us to provide close to $7 worth of food to those impacted by the bushfires.

Leader of the Australian Labor Party, Anthony Albanese, kindly visited our warehouse to thank our volunteers and learn more about our Victorian operations.

We joined Cold Chisel at Mount Duneeed Estate for their 2020 Blood Moon Tour. The legendary rockers helped to raise funds for Foodbank and we were there in our purple aprons collecting donations for our disaster relief work. In the warehouse, our volunteers packed the 4,500th hamper since our first day of opening to the public.

More than 3,000 kilograms of mixed groceries were shipped to the Adventist Development Relief Agency in Bairnsdale and a further 565 kilograms of food relief was delivered to Bairnsdale Neighbourhood House. Our volunteers – with a little help from Gordon Ramsay – continued to pack and sort donated goods.

Her Excellency the Honourable Linda Dessau AC, Governor of Victoria, and Mr Anthony Howard AM QC spent time meeting staff and volunteers and thanking them for their efforts during our bushfire food relief response.

20 more pallets of food went by truck to Bairnsdale, with eight of these pallets making their way to Mallacoota. In the warehouse, emergency relief hamper packing continued.

To this date, more than 3,300 mixed grocery hampers, 138 pallets of water, three pallets of muesli bars and four pallets of fruit cups have been delivered to disaster recovery centres and communities in East Gippsland and beyond, with thousands more packed and ready for distribution.

The community response has been incredible and our volunteers are working hard to sort through donations and pack these into hampers. But there is still a long road to recovery. That’s why we’re asking for financial support to keep food and supplies flowing. A $1 donation allows us to provide 2 meals.

There is still a long road to recovery as affected communities begin to heal, recover and rebuild – and we will be there with them, every step of the way. Read some inspiring and heart-warming tales of recovery from the communities of East Gippsland.

US superstar Lizzo drops by to thank Foodbank Victoria bushfire food relief volunteers

The US superstar dropped by to show her support to the Foodbank Victoria volunteers who have been collecting, sorting and packing food hampers and water supplies for bushfire affected communities in Victoria.

Eager to assist the many Victorians who had been affected by the bushfires, Lizzo joined the packing line, helping to pack essential items into emergency relief hampers.

The singer hugged and chatted with some of the 400 volunteers who’ve been working in shifts since last week to help sort and pack the massive amount of food donations received from generous Victorians at our Yarraville warehouse.

If you’d like to join Lizzo in supporting the bushfire crisis, you can click the link here.

FOODBANK VICTORIA TO DELIVER FOOD HAMPERS AND DRINKING WATER TO EAST GIPPSLAND

1 January 2020

A truck full of food and drinking water will head to East Gippsland from Melbourne today, with Foodbank Victoria sending the supplies in to help firefighters and local communities caught up in the bushfire emergency.

The food supplies are part of Foodbank Victoria’s disaster relief support to Emergency Management Victoria and will go to the recovery centre at Bairnsdale Race Course for distribution.

Foodbank Victoria CEO Dave McNamara says “Our hearts go out to the incredible firefighters, first responders and the displaced communities in East Gippsland. We can only imagine what they’re going through and hope the food and water supplies provide some comfort and support during an horrific start to the new year.

“This first delivery of 650 food hampers and 10 pallets of water should give community members sufficient food for four days and will ship about 1,500 hampers in the coming days.

“We already know we will need to send in about 5,000 food hampers overall to the region, so I’m calling on Melbournians to urgently help us with food or financial donations.

“We really need ‘grab and go’ items like muesli bars and fruit cups, but tinned food, UHT milk, noodles and other ambient – or non-frozen or refrigerated food – is desperately needed.

“If you can’t donate food, we’ll gratefully accept funds – every dollar donated helps us provide about $7 worth of food assistance.”

The first delivery will include essential things like mixed groceries and, specific to first responders fighting the fires, ‘grab and go’ items and water – providing more than 7,000 meals.

“Our ongoing response will be distributed by established relief and recovery centres throughout East Gippsland, including those isolated communities currently only accessible by air or sea.”

This delivery comes as Foodbank Victoria, the state’s oldest and largest food relief organisation, sees 2020 mark 90 years of helping Victorians in times of need.

“Sadly, we’re no stranger to this role. Whether it’s disasters like the current bushfires or the everyday emergencies Victorians find themselves in, we’ve been there to provide food and support for 90 years now.

“From experience, we know the long-term effect of these events impacts more than just the affected communities. Foodbank Victoria will be there to provide ongoing support to the wider Gippsland communities directly, and through our programs like the Farms to Families markets, our charity partners, and our School Breakfast Program.”

Bertochhi Christmas Ham Glaze Recipe

This Christmas, our friends at Bertocchi Smallgoods kindly donated hundreds of hams to help struggling families through the festive season (you may have seen this on the news).

We couldn’t help but ask for their go-to Christmas Ham recipe – so here it is!

INGREDIENTS

 

  • 1 Bertocchi or San Marino whole leg ham, on the bone (about 8-9kg)
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup marmalade
  • 2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • Juice and zest of a large orange
  • Cloves to stud the ham

 

METHOD

 

  • Preheat oven to 170ºC.
  • Line a large baking dish with 2 layers of non-stick baking paper.
  • Place an oven shelf in the lowest position. Remove all other shelves.
  • Use a sharp knife to cut around the shank of the ham, about 10cm from the end. Then run the knife under the rind around edge of ham.
  • Gently lift the rind off in one piece by running your fingers between the rind and the fat.
  • Score the fat in a diamond pattern (45º angle), about 5mm deep.
  • Stud the centres of the diamonds with cloves. Transfer to prepared dish.
  • Combine brown sugar, marmalade, mustard, juice and zest in a saucepan and gently heat until the sugar has dissolved. Continue to cook until reduced slightly.
  • Brush one-third of the glaze over the ham. Bake, brushing with glaze every 15 minutes, for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the ham is golden and cooked.

 

CARVING TIPS

 

  • Place ham skin side up. Then run a small, sharp knife under the rind around the bottom (opposite end to hock) and each side of the ham to about halfway up towards the hock. Peel the rind back.
  • Run the tip of the knife around the bone, on the underside of the ham. Begin to slice on a slight angle down to the bone.
  • Run your knife lengthways along the bone to remove slices. Continue to slice towards the hock.
  • Continue slicing down to the bone, working your way around the ham. When you’ve reached about a third to the way up, you can remove the bone by making a few short cuts at the joint.

 

STORAGE TIPS

 

  • Store in fridge at 4C or below.
  • Leave ham in plastic wrap until ready to use.
  • Discard plastic wrap prior to use.
  • After carving, store remainder of ham in damp ‘ham bag’ which has been lightly moistened with 75-25 water/white vinegar solution.
  • Refresh ‘ham bag’ with solution as above every 2 to 3 days to maximise shelf life.
  • Please ensure that the ham is refrigerated as soon as possible after carving.
  • ENJOY!

Click here to view more Bertocchi recipes.

MasterChef finalist teams up with Foodbank to launch new range of recipe cards

Morwell community members enjoyed an extra special addition to Foodbank Victoria’s mobile market on Friday, 6 December – a cooking demonstration by MasterChef finalist, Simon Toohey.

Donning a purple apron, Simon braved the windy weather to help Foodbank Victoria launch a brand new range of recipe cards that promote simple, low-cost and healthy eating.

Held monthly in Morwell, the pop-up market provides free, nutritious and fresh produce to clients of local charities. The recipe cards aim to encourage market attendees to create nutritious meals from the fruit and vegetables that are regularly available.

Simon, who is an advocate for waste-free and sustainable eating, helped Foodbank Victoria develop some of the recipes.

“Foodbank’s model of rescuing edible produce and redistributing it to those in need strongly aligns with my ambition of creating a sustainable future and I am just thrilled to be working with Foodbank to help get people excited about fresh produce,” said Simon Toohey.

Simon’s recipe for ‘Cabbage Savoury Pancakes’ is just one of the delicious offerings included in the range – which proved to be a crowd pleaser on the day.

“These are delicious! I’m going to try them with a hint of garlic,” said a Market attendee.

Working with several charity partners in Morwell including, Enjoy Church, Theodora’s Cheerful Givers, Morwell Neighbourhood House, the Salvation Army and The Gathering Place, the market can assist up to 300 families in the community. And while providing food is vital, promoting healthy eating is just as important.

“Through these new recipe cards, we are helping Victorians better understand nutrition and encouraging them to cook with vegetables they might not be too familiar with. We also understand families are busy, and the recipes offer quick and healthy meal options for those with demanding schedules,” said Dave McNamara, Foodbank Victoria CEO.

We cannot thank Simon enough for his ongoing support of the work that we do.

School Spotlight: Stawell Primary School

For over 10 years, students have been enjoying Breakfast Club as a healthy and positive way to start their school day.

We chatted to Michael Lewis, Chaplain of Stawell Primary School, about the benefits of the program.

He said, “We are grateful to our committed volunteers who run the program and to Foodbank for providing our breakfast food.

“We are also grateful to a generous local bakery for donating bread every week. Breakfast time is a time for lively conversations and building friendships in a safe, happy environment.

“At breakfast, music plays a big part in creating a fun and relaxing atmosphere. We play a musical guessing-game, where students guess what movie a piece of music comes from, to win extra toast and bragging rights.

“We also ask students to share three things they are grateful for; which has sparked conversations about a wide variety of things, like being grateful for fresh morning air, birds singing, a favourite toy or sport, and special relationships. This adds up to students having a positive mindset and outlook on life.”

Want to share what you do to engage the school community with breakfast club? Email us at schoolbreakfastclub@foodbankvictoria.org.au

Read more School Breakfast Club stories