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Katie Woolf spoke with FOODBANK NT CEO Peter Pilt · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are coming to your life this morning from the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Mitchell Center and we're just outside Coles now if you
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: haven't been listening throughout the morning, we are here for.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: A wonderful cause. It's for Food Bank that.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Each year they have their Christmas Hamper Appeal and it's
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: on again and well we're calling on the local community
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  Speaker 1: to support Territorians in need throughout the month of November.
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  Speaker 1: Now joining me to tell us a little bit more
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  Speaker 1: about it is the CEO of Food Bank here in
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory, Peter Pills.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Peter.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, and good morning to everyone who's listening.
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  Speaker 1: Mate. Food Bank does such a phenomenal job and over
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  Speaker 1: a number of years in the territory, I've seen the
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  Speaker 1: wonderful work that you guys do and this Hamper appeal
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  Speaker 1: is such an important part of what you do.
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  Speaker 2: Is nash it really is.
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  Speaker 4: You know, people that are are food insecure throughout the year.
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  Speaker 4: It's exacerbated at Christmas time because Christmas time is meant
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  Speaker 4: to be a happy time and people that can't afford
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  Speaker 4: food it just makes it worse. And so what we
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  Speaker 4: want to do at food Bank Empty is to have
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  Speaker 4: a Christmas Hamper Appeal like we do every year, and
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: we're doing it again this year so that we can
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  Speaker 4: bring a smile to people's faces at Christmas time.
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  Speaker 1: It's such a great I just think it's such a
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  Speaker 1: great way that you do things at Christmas time because
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  Speaker 1: you guys always say it's not about a handout for people,
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  Speaker 1: it's about a hand up.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that that's a really nice way of
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  Speaker 2: talking about.
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  Speaker 1: It because a lot of people don't want to be
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  Speaker 1: in a situation where they've got to go to food bank.
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  Speaker 2: That's true, and you know, and the fact that you
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  Speaker 2: make it so nice.
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  Speaker 1: And easy for people, for Territorians, I just think it's
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  Speaker 1: wonderful the way that it's done.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's what it's about. It.
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  Speaker 4: It's about sharing food with dignity and being able to
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  Speaker 4: meet people's needs again without shame or anything like that.
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  Speaker 4: And it's just been fantastic just to be down here
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  Speaker 4: this morning and to see Territorians just going into cohles
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  Speaker 4: we give them a little list of things that they
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  Speaker 4: can purchase and coming out and filling up our purple bins.
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  Speaker 3: That have been absolutely fantastic.
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  Speaker 4: So this year we're looking at increasing the number of
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  Speaker 4: hampers last year we did seven hundred and fifty and
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  Speaker 4: we're going to one.
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  Speaker 3: Thousand hampers this year.
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  Speaker 4: And we're running a program called Hampers to the Heart
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  Speaker 4: and we're taking two hundred and fifty here or three hundred,
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  Speaker 4: actually three hundred hampers down to Catherine Tennant Creek and
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  Speaker 4: Alice Springs in the first week in December.
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  Speaker 1: Is this the first time that you've taken those hampers
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  Speaker 1: on the road to those other town centers.
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  Speaker 4: It is, And I just want to give a shout
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  Speaker 4: out to Newmont Minds who have actually sponsored the Hampers
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  Speaker 4: to the Heart program, which has been absolutely fantastic and
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  Speaker 4: so we appreciate their generosity. And so it's not just
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  Speaker 4: the top end territories that we're helping, but right down
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  Speaker 4: through to the heart of Australia.
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  Speaker 1: That's a fantastic thing to do and well done to Newmont.
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  Speaker 1: I just think it's so important that some of our
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  Speaker 1: larger organizations around the territory are helping out and helping
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  Speaker 1: such a wonderful cause.
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  Speaker 2: Now, in terms of what.
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  Speaker 1: You would like to see people bringing down this morning,
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  Speaker 1: what do you want them to, what do you want
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  Speaker 1: them to purchase when they're in coals.
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  Speaker 3: Well, Christmas y things, yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Like Christmas pudding, maybe pancake mix, maybe some lollies, maybe
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  Speaker 4: some chocolate biscuits.
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  Speaker 3: You know, things that people that are.
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  Speaker 4: Food insecure wouldn't normally necessarily because they're going to purchase
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  Speaker 4: the essentials. But we just want to bring a smile
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  Speaker 4: to people's faces at Christmas time, and particularly kids. So
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  Speaker 4: you know, if you think, you know, if you had
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  Speaker 4: if you had young kids on Christmas Day and they're
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  Speaker 4: getting up for Christmas lunch, what do you want them
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  Speaker 4: to eat? And so they're the kind of things that
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  Speaker 4: we want people to purchase.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Now, speaking about the fact that the hamper numbers
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  Speaker 1: have obviously gone up, the number that you're wanting to
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  Speaker 1: get out seven hundred and fifty last year, one thousand
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  Speaker 1: this year, and you're taking some on the road. Have
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  Speaker 1: you found over the COVID period that your service has
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  Speaker 1: become even more important to territory?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely huge.
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  Speaker 4: In the June quarter, our demand increase by sixty one percent,
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  Speaker 4: which equates to eighty six thousand extra meals going through
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  Speaker 4: the warehouse out at Berrima just those in that three
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  Speaker 4: month period.
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  Speaker 3: So in a normal month.
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  Speaker 4: We put through our warehouse about forty five two hundred
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  Speaker 4: meals and so we were doing that, but then across
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  Speaker 4: that June quarter it was eighty six thousand additional meals.
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  Speaker 2: And it's unbelievable.
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  Speaker 4: Because now the job keeper and job seeker payments have
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  Speaker 4: been wound back, we're now starting to see through our
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  Speaker 4: Food for Life hubs. We're starting to see an increase
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  Speaker 4: in demand there because people again are feeling food insecure.
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  Speaker 4: So our Food for Life hubs is where the where
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  Speaker 4: members of the public can actually shop through us. So
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  Speaker 4: they can't shop out the breham A Warehouse, but they
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  Speaker 4: can through our Food.
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  Speaker 3: For Life hubs.
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  Speaker 2: Now where are some of those Food for Life hubs?
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  Speaker 1: If anybody is out there listening this morning, who's thinking, oh,
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  Speaker 1: how do I find out a bit more about this?
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  Speaker 2: Where do I go?
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  Speaker 3: Well? N one. You can go to our website and
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  Speaker 3: find out more information there. You can ring out breham
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  Speaker 3: A Warehouse if you want locations.
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  Speaker 4: But our closest one here is Darwin Baptist Church and
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  Speaker 4: it's on a Friday morning. It's on the corner of
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  Speaker 4: Ross Miller Drive and the Stuart Highway and nine till
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  Speaker 4: twelve and you've got to have a healthcare card or
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  Speaker 4: a pension card. But you turn up there and we
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  Speaker 4: have a whole range of food, meats, bread, milk that
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  Speaker 4: you can purchase.
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  Speaker 3: At a low cost.
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  Speaker 1: Now I know plenty of people will be listening this morning,
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  Speaker 1: maybe in their offices, their workshops wherever they work this morning,
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  Speaker 1: or whether they're driving around and they might not be
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  Speaker 1: able to get here for this morning's food drive. When
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  Speaker 1: can they donate if they're not able to get here today.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we are right throughout November.
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  Speaker 4: Every weekend, Saturday and Sunday, we are in many many
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  Speaker 4: places like next Saturday we are in Casuarina Square and
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  Speaker 4: Woolworth's Nightcliff, and then the following weekend we're at cool
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  Speaker 4: A Linga Cole's and cool Olinga Woolworths and also Darwin
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  Speaker 4: City Warwors. So there's a whole series of different places.
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  Speaker 4: And again if people want to ring Food Bank NT
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  Speaker 4: out of Brima, we can certainly tell them where they
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  Speaker 4: can go. If people can't get to a store and
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  Speaker 4: they still want to donate, they can either bring food
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  Speaker 4: out to the warehouse or they can get onto our
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  Speaker 4: Food Bank NT website, which is just a matter of
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  Speaker 4: just going to a Google food bank food Bank Australia
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  Speaker 4: and it will throw you to the NT website and
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  Speaker 4: you can donate financially.
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  Speaker 2: How much food do we want to gather?
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  Speaker 3: More than enough? More than enough.
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  Speaker 4: I would love to be able to say to my team, look, guys,
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  Speaker 4: we've got too much food. A thousand hampers. We were
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  Speaker 4: thinking too small, We're during fifteen hundred.
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  Speaker 3: That'd be amazing there. The more food we can gather,
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  Speaker 3: the better it is.
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  Speaker 1: So what about if there's a business listening this morning
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  Speaker 1: who thinks will I actually want to donate some cash?
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  Speaker 1: Can they do that so that their you guys can
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  Speaker 1: obviously you know, purchase other food.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely, and cash is good because what we want to
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  Speaker 4: do is sometimes as we're packing hampers, we go, okay,
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  Speaker 4: we're short two hundred Christmas puddings, and so we do
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  Speaker 4: have to buy some things to make sure that there's
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  Speaker 4: a consistency amongst the hampers.
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  Speaker 3: So well, cash is an important part of that. And
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  Speaker 3: so if there's any businesses out there that want to.
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  Speaker 4: Donate cash, they can again go through the food bank website.
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  Speaker 4: They can bring I mean, they can ring us up
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  Speaker 4: and we'll give them the bank details or hate I'll
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  Speaker 4: personally come and pick up cash.
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  Speaker 1: Mate. I can't speak highly enough about the wonderful work
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  Speaker 1: that Food Bank do. And I just think in a
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  Speaker 1: year like we've been hit, if there are going to
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  Speaker 1: be people who don't necessarily feel overly comfortable with you know,
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  Speaker 1: with needing a hand but they do need a bit
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  Speaker 1: of a hand up. And the work that you guys
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  Speaker 1: do is so wonderful. It gives people, you know, they
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  Speaker 1: keep they've got their dignity, They're able to come and
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  Speaker 1: get that support that they need, and I just think
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  Speaker 1: it's a wonderful thing.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, I'm new to the NT. I moved up
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  Speaker 3: in January for the job.
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  Speaker 4: And look, I've just you know, through COVID obviously it
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  Speaker 4: just messed with everything, but I've just appreciated that the
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  Speaker 4: leaning of corporates in you know, across the top end,
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  Speaker 4: like the Impacts Impacts is here at the moment, and
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  Speaker 4: we've appreciated the support of Impacts, South thirty two and Newmont.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, they've just all been fantastic. But then there's
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  Speaker 4: the individual territories. And again, as I'm watching people come
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  Speaker 4: out of coals with you know boxes.
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  Speaker 3: There was one lady here.
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  Speaker 4: She bought her son down and she said, I've specifically
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  Speaker 4: come down to do a food bank shop, and so
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  Speaker 4: she went into Coles, bought a whole stack of stuff,
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  Speaker 4: put it in the in the in the bin.
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  Speaker 3: It's just absolutely fantastic. That nice. It's got to be
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  Speaker 3: one of the best places in the world to live
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  Speaker 3: for sure.
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  Speaker 2: I can't speak highly enough about the territory. Everyone move here.
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  Speaker 3: I'm loving the territory.
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  Speaker 1: Will Peter Pelt, CEO of food Bank, lovely to speak
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  Speaker 1: to you this morning. I think we'll catch up again
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  Speaker 1: a little bit later and find out how things are going.
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  Speaker 2: But good on you guys. We'll talk to you again
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  Speaker 2: later on.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks Katie.