News

BIG thank you to Ausure Insurance Brokers for choosing us for their photocopier needs. Another 150kg of pasta donated from Make A Difference Community to Foodbank Victoria funded by 1 new HP photocopier. This will help create an incredible 1,200 meals! Thanks to Josh Legudi for supporting Digital Document Solutions.

Kenshi Candles is a truly inspiring story of Liam Foldi who decided at 14 years of age he wanted to make a real difference in the world. After 3 years and over 25,000 candles sold, Kenshi has helped raise over one hundred thousand dollars for many different causes. Together we will eradicate hunger in Australia without asking anyone to donate any money

There are now over 300 schools and childcare centres selling the candles which are directly helping us buy food for families in need. Perhaps you’ve seen them on display in their Reception area? In the last 4 months, they have done an absolutely awesome job supporting vulnerable neighbours in our community!

Can you believe we purchased and delivered over 17 tonnes of pasta and rice in November and December? This equals around 125,000 meals and we directly helped the refugee community from Myanmar who make the candles. They are incredibly appreciative of your support as the income from each candle helps them here in Australia and also their family and friends in Myanmar.

These photos were from our partners and from our first “pour” in the new candle making facility in Sunshine North.

GOOD NEWS ALERT

In February, we have reached an exciting milestone and funded our 1,000,000th meal! Since 2018, we have purchased and delivered a total of 130.34 tonnes of pasta and rice to our local food charities and soup kitchens.

Thanks a million to all our members, partners and supporters for helping us eradicate hunger & feed hope! We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved and we can’t wait to fund 1 million more with you!

No doubt you have seen pictures of the devastating floods occurring in the Northern Rivers region of Australia. This is a terrible disaster and the BOM is now predicting a 1 in 500 year flood.

Please help us make a massive difference and show the people who have lost homes and livelihoods that we really do care. We are coordinating with our food suppliers to send 2 tonnes of pasta and 1 tonne of rice to Ballina this Friday. This will help create around 24,000 meals. We are lucky to have a contact in Ballina, Shape Aluminium, who can receive the pallets and help distribute to all of the food charities in the area.

Every Kenshi candle funds 3kg of pasta! Help us sell 1,000 candles in the next week and together we really will make a massive difference.

For every 5 candles you order we will give you a 6th free! This is our additional contribution to help you dig deep. As you know these inspiring candles are fantastic gifts for any occasion. Just use the discount code ”northernrivers” to unlock the free candle.

Please share with everyone you know in any way you can. Thanks for being a part of something special and doing what you can to help fellow Aussies doing it really tough at the moment.

Follow this link to buy candles: https://makeadifference.community/order-candles/

Photo credit: AAP: Jason O’Brien

Employees may be attracted to your organisation due to multiple reasons, but THEY WILL STAY AND DO THEIR BEST BECAUSE OF THE PURPOSE AND MEANING IT BRINGS.

Our partnership with Digital Document Solutions has been incredibly effective in funding hundreds of thousands of meals.

Who would have thought that such a boring business expense like photocopiers and printers could create so much impact!

Nearly 40% of the total food donated by the Make A Difference Community has been paid from DDS profits. Typically a photocopier will fund over 200 kg’s of pasta – enough for 1,600 meals.

DDS is one of the premier office machines companies in Australia. The service provided is truly outstanding. So many times we hear positive feedback about the quality of service and the machines.

These days you can gauge how well a company is managed by the feedback its clients provide on Google. There really is no hiding from Google!

DDS has over 2,000 clients and incredibly still enjoys a 100% 5-star rating from over 150 different reviews. https://bit.ly/36iBO7W

Foodbank Australia has revealed one in six Australian adults haven’t had enough to eat in the last year. On top of this, 1.2 million children have gone hungry during the same period.

It also shows that more than half of people impacted by severe food insecurity go a whole day every week without eating.

COVID-19 continues to impact the life of Australia’s most vulnerable. More than one in three Australians (38%) who were food insecure during the last year had never experienced food insecurity prior to the pandemic.

In spite of best efforts, food relief is still not reaching many Australians who need it.

The Foodbank Hunger Report is an annual spotlight on food insecurity in Australia bringing together Foodbank’s research and on-the-ground information and observations.

Click here to access the report: https://www.foodbank.org.au/research-reports/?state=au

Make A Difference Community is now on the road to fund its 1,000,000th meal!

We have seen a dramatic increase in requests from our local food banks and food pantries. Sadly, the demand is very real and unfortunately due to Covid is growing.

We are extremely happy that we have been able to provide these meals to families in desperate need. This would not have been possible without the help of our incredible members, partners and supporters.

A BIG win for all of us.

Thanks to SecondBite for acknowledging our efforts and a greater thanks to our members for making this possible. We cannot wait to see what we can achieve in 2022.

Late last year we decided to promote Kenshi Candles through schools and childcares to buy food for homeless people and families in need. Kenshi was created by a 14 yr old Aussie boy who wanted to change the world. So far, there has been around 3,500 candles sold allowing us to donate more than 5 tonnes of pasta for families in Australia and provide money for 6 children to be taken off the streets in The Philippines and fed and educated for 12 months. HUGE THANK-YOU for all the school and childcare staff, parents, family and friends who have supported this cause. Particularly during Covid, we are amazed at the generosity and support provided. We look forward to our next big food drive in 2022 with Kenshi life-changing candles.