In collaboration with its supply chain, distribution, and non-profit partners, Kellogg has announced a national partnership with Foodbank to donate over 3.7 million serves of cereal and snack foods each year and support communities across the country.
Kellog Australia and New Zealand Managing Director Anthony Holme said, “The issue of food insecurity is continuing to grow in Australia. As a leading Australian food manufacturer, Kellogg has a critical role to play in helping to overcome the hunger crisis by providing food relief to Foodbank to support the more than one million Aussies who experience food insecurity each month.”
Kellogg's partnership with Foodbank is longstanding. In 2014, Kellogg donated six million serves of cereal and $100,000 to help Foodbank expand the reach of its nationwide Foodbank School Breakfast Program.
The same year Foodbank awarded Kellogg its Leadership Award for its holistic approach to its partnership with Foodbank both internally and externally with the ‘Breakfast for Better Days’ program. In addition to its donations that year, Kellogg’s ensured the full engagement of its staff through volunteering, internal food drives and hamper packing events.
Kellogg increased its breakfast donations in 2015 to coincide with Foodbank's Hunger in the Classroom report which showed that two thirds of teachers report children come to school hungry or without having eaten breakfast.
In response to Covid in 2020, Kellogg extended its support of Foodbank by increasing donations by one tonne per month for six months, combatting food security, worsened by the pandemic.
Foodbank said that in 2020, demand for food relief increased by 47 per cent, with three in 10 Australians being food insecure for the first time in their lives.
The donations this year equate to around 150,000 serves of cereal. In addition, Kellogg has also made an immediate donation of 215,000 serves in cereal and snacks to Foodbank and OzHarvest across Australia, as well as City Missions in New Zealand.
It’s been reported that one in six Australians (17 per cent) can be categorised as being severely food insecure, and more than half (57 per cent) go a whole day without eating at least once a week, with a child more likely to be food insecure than an adult. Higher rates of food insecurity exist across Indigenous, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD), unemployed and socially isolated people.
“Kellogg and Foodbank share a common goal in addressing food insecurity, providing hunger relief and food access. Together with Foodbank and the vital work it does through its national School Breakfast Program, we’re aiming to help Australians in need and strive to make sure no one should have to wake up to an empty bowl,” said Holme.
Foodbank works with 2,950 frontline charities and 2,890 school breakfast programs to get over 86.7 million meals out to those who could use a hand every year.
Annually, Kellogg has committed to donating a minimum of 150,000kg of cereal and snack products each year, and to date this year has donated over 3.4 million serves of cereal to Foodbank.
Foodbank Australia CEO, Brianna Casey said demand for food relief is up 50 per cent on 2019, due to a combination of more people seeking food relief and seeking it more often.
“With inflation hitting 6.1 percent and the highest year-on-year food inflation in more than a decade, housing affordability and availability, we’re bracing for even higher levels of demand.
“We’re seeing a knock-on effect to on-farm labour shortages, successive floods in key growing regions and ongoing supply chain disruption, which means partnerships like Kellogg’s and the consistent donations will help make a difference to the many people doing it tough right now,” said Casey.
Through its Better Days global purpose platform, Kellogg has committed to feeding 375 million people in need by the end of 2030.
