Thanks to a new partnership with national food agency, SecondBite, the local Coles store donates fresh fruit, vegetables and bread to Mount Isa Family Support Service and Kalkadoon Native Title Aboriginal Corporation.

SecondBite says the local arrangement, which began in November last year, has resulted in the equivalent of around 6,600 meals being donated to people in need.

Mount Isa Family Support Service provides food relief for people on low incomes three times a week, while Kalkadoon Native Title Aboriginal Corporation is responsible for the welfare of the Kalkadoon people, many of whom live below the poverty line, and require food assistance on a daily basis.

Mt Isa store manager Lynette Lees said Coles was proud of its arrangement to ensure fresh food did not go to waste.

“Too many people are doing it tough in our community and we think it is important that our store does what it can to address this by donating fresh, nutritious food that might otherwise have gone to waste,” she said.

SecondBite CEO Jim McMullan said the Mt Isa store was now one of more than 600 Coles supermarkets donating food to people in need via SecondBite.

“By working together, SecondBite and Coles are now providing enough fresh food for more than 23,000 nutritious meals every single day to children and families doing it tough across Australia,” he said.

In the last five years across Australia in partnership with SecondBite, Coles has donated more than 40 million meals to people in need.