Planet CHILL & OzHarvest

At Chill, we’ve always prided ourselves on doing cool things differently – and our commitment to giving back in a genuine way is a critical part of that. Being creative for a cause is the heart and soul of our business – it’s what’s driven us since we first launched Chill in 2000.

Fast forward two decades and we’re continuing to seek out partnerships with clients who inspire us, who think big with their marketing and logistics solutions, and who are equally committed to being altruistic in their day-to-day operations.

Enter our collaboration with OzHarvest, the nation’s leading food rescue organisation.

In early 2021, we came on board to support OzHarvest’s Mobile Markets, which deliver nourishing food to regional communities across NSW. The project launched in 2020 to great success. In just a few months, we’ve helped triple the number of locales visited in 2020 and delivered 36,000kgs of healthy food to nearly 5000 households.

The figures are jaw-dropping but it’s meeting and talking to the families in need that truly makes this a worthwhile partnership. Last year was challenging for many – between bushfires, drought and the COVID-19 pandemic, many regional towns felt the burden of job loss, narrowing industries, and the flow-on effects to family, social and community life.

OzHarvest had plans to grow their operation in the new year, wanting to extend their drop-off locations in the Riverina Murray region and increase the number of towns visited – and we knew we could help. We offered up vans and a cool room, enabling OzHarvest volunteers to keep chilled products cool for longer, reducing wastage, and travel longer distances without fear of food perishing.

Our involvement has yielded great results – we’ve helped the OzHarvest team host 190 pop-up fruit and vegetable market events state-wide and deliver food to 33 towns across NSW, including new stops in Binnaway, Gravesend and Darlington Point, and additional locations in the Riverina.

This year, the impacts of a trying 2020 continue to linger – many people are still rebuilding and adjusting to life in a post-pandemic world. Our regional centres have been hit hard – and as an organisation, it’s impossible not to visit these communities and feel compelled to do everything we can to support them. By simply providing additional transport support, we’ve been able to not only help deliver much-needed food to these households, but provide a sense of mateship, an ear to listen, and an understanding that we see, hear, and support our regional counterparts.

For us, teaming up with OzHarvest on the mobile markets was a natural fit: we already had the transport infrastructure to help volunteers both manage the current deliveries and take the initiative to the next level. Additionally, at team Chill, we’ve always been active in promoting a brighter future for people and the planet, and we’ve been particularly focused on limiting food wastage. Being able to provide a refrigerated storage solution to keep food at the right temperature for longer for families in need was an easy fix and something that directly aligns with our own operational goals.

Our collaboration with OzHarvest is a truly sustainable partnership – it’s about more than just-food. It’s about providing long term solutions to help people in the community and improve their quality of life. We’ve already seen what can happen through collaborations like these – and we know there’s so much more to come in 2021.

Want to help? For every $1 donated, OzHarvest is able to deliver two meals to people in need. Help keep them (and our vans!) on the road by heading to ozharvest.org and donating today.