‘‘I say no, that’s actually the van, it gets around,’’ she says laughing.

It’s understandable that many assume the organisation that has delivered the equivalent of 300,000 meals to disadvantaged Hunter residents since February last year has an army of staff and a fleet of vehicles.

Instead the charity employs just two people – dedicated co-ordinator Monique Maguire and van driver Shane Johns.

There is also a rotating roster of 25 volunteers, their efforts driven by a commitment to improve lives within the community, one box of groceries at a time.

OzHarvest was established by Ronni Kahn in Sydney in 2004 as a way to rescue excess food that would otherwise be discarded and distribute it to charities supporting the vulnerable.

It spread to Newcastle after Scratchley’s Neil Slater heard Khan speak at a function.

Slater was so moved he teamed up with The Essential Ingredient’s Leonie Young to investigate how to establish an arm of the charity in Newcastle.

They approached Life Church’s Lifeshapers and set up the first incarnation of the charity in Soul Cafe in Denison Street in February last year.

The food rescue program grew so rapidly it became its own entity and moved to its own premises inside The Essential Ingredient in November.

Former policewoman Monique Maguire joined the organisation as co-ordinator in September last year, just before the move.

She said the premise of the charity is gloriously simple.

‘‘Why wouldn’t you give food away? If you don’t, you’ll just throw it in the bin,’’ she said.

‘‘It’s common sense and as Ronni Khan once said, it’s the head connecting to the heart.

‘‘It’s a fabulous job and a great feeling to know that not only are we helping to feed people who are really struggling, we’re helping the environment as well, stopping tonnes of food going to landfill.

‘‘It’s a two pronged attack.’’

Driver Shane Johns and a volunteer hit the road in the refrigerated OzHarvest van every day from Monday to Friday, travelling as far south as Swansea and Morisset and north to Beresfield and Raymond Terrace, picking up and delivering food.

They visit registered food businesses to collect an array of uncooked meats, prepackaged meals, pies and pastries, bread, fruit and vegetables, sandwiches, dairy products, milk and other beverages.

Most of the donated food can’t be sold by businesses because it is too close to its use-by date, has damaged packaging or a bruise or blemish.

The only products OzHarvest doesn’t accept are rice products, shellfish, or items past the use-by date.

But it does accept items past the best-before date.

Johns records the details and weight of the food when it is picked up and also when it is delivered.

To date OzHarvest Newcastle has rescued 90 tonnes of food, the equivalent of 300,000 meals.

It collects about 1500kilograms of food every week and delivers the equivalent of 14,000 meals per month.

Its record for one day is 1146kilograms and the record for a week was recently set from September 5 to 9, when a total of 3943 kilograms was collected.

Both of the records were set after collecting high volumes of milk.

‘‘We’re just getting out, just scratching the surface because there is so much waste out there,’’ Maguire said.

‘‘With places like Crowne Plaza or Wests, their breakfast buffet goes from 6am to 10am in the morning.

‘‘There are a lot of cooked meals from the breakfast buffet that otherwise they’d throw in the bin if they didn’t give to us.’’

HUSBAND and wife team Mary O’Connor and Peter Hajevsky from The Fresh Ingredient at Georgetown started donating to OzHarvest within its first two weeks of operation.

Their business is based on a sustainable, Earth-friendly philosophy and they sell fruit and vegetables, gluten free and/or organic produce and bread and milk from non-commercial local producers.

O’Connor said donating to OzHarvest seemed the perfect fit from the very start.

‘‘It’s a great soul activity that costs basically nothing,’’ says O’Connor, who has been involved in social justice activities in the past and saw this as a way to contribute to the community.

‘‘It’s a life philosophy.

‘‘We want to share our good fortune and believe everyone should get the chance to smile once a day – if you’ve got a meal in your tummy it’s a lot easier.’’

Johns visits the business twice a week and the couple ensure there is always at least one box ready to go – and it’s not just produce that has blemishes or is close to its use-by date.

The Fresh Ingredient also acts as a conduit for suppliers who have an oversupply of produce and want it to go to a good cause.

The couple also often throw in sellable fruit such as bananas or mangoes from the shelf.

‘‘Although it’s wonderful to have prepackaged meals from donors, it’s really important people learn how to cook a meal from scratch using fresh produce and knowing it doesn’t have to be an incredibly expensive thing to do.’’

The couple recently moved their business from Kotara to Georgetown and held their official opening on August 20, where they collected 136kilograms of donations for OzHarvest.

They are planning for a way to collect packet and tinned food all year round for the charity.

After picking up donations, Johns delivers the produce to charities on the same day.

OzHarvest Newcastle has a register of 48 charities in the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Raymond Terrace areas, enabling the organisations to reduce their food budget and spend the money on other programs and services.

SCOTT Pilgrim is the Hunter manager for Baptist Community Services, which operates the MayCare Community Centre at Mayfield.

The centre opened in February, 2010, and was one of OzHarvest’s first clients.

It receives daily deliveries of cooked food including lasagne, as well as cold meats, fresh fruit and vegetables and dairy products.

The food helps the centre to host a free breakfast four days a week , a two-course lunch on Wednesdays for $2, and food when it becomes a drop-in centre from 10am to 2pm on weekdays.

During these hours it provides free food, tea and coffee, housing support, financial assistance and crisis food parcels.

‘‘We use all the food [from OzHarvest] to supplement the food in the centre to make meals on site for the clients or to pack for emergency meals,’’ Pilgrim said.

‘‘Homeless people or people in precarious situations are provided with frozen meals.

‘‘It certainly saves us thousands of dollars over the course of the year, it’s food that we otherwise wouldn’t have and probably wouldn’t be able to pay for.

‘‘It makes a huge difference to our capacity to serve our clients and better enhance our products and services to deliver to people.

‘‘So it’s a financial benefit to the centre and a wider benefit to the clients.

‘‘We spent $30,000 a year on that client care meal provision area and any money we save is put into other programs and services to further help clients.’’

OzHarvest does not have a regular income stream to pay for its van, petrol and two salaries.

Instead it survives through donations and grants.

ResCo donated the van and The Essential Ingredient provides its premises, electricity and internet connection.

It has received grants from the Department of Environment and Heritage, Department of Human Services, Lake Macquarie Council and under the CDSE (Community Development Support Expenditure) scheme from Lake Macquarie clubs.

It received a $100,000 NIB Foundation community grant in October last year and promised in exchange to deliver the equivalent of 100,000 meals.

It doubled this and was able to deliver food for 200,000.

OzHarvest has applied this year for funding under the same NIB program, as well as to the Greater Foundation and Newcastle Permanent.

Maguire said the organisation was working to raise its profile, to reach new donors and to establish a partnership with a business that would enable the charity to formulate a three year financial plan.

She hopes to put any additional funding towards another van for smaller pickups from cafes and restaurants and to extend pickups and deliveries to the Cessnock and Maitland areas.

‘‘The goal would be to make sure we’re reaching every charity that helps people with food security in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Port Stephens and Cessnock,’’ Maguire said.

‘‘That would be the goal – to get to every single charity.

‘‘And one day we will.’’