Fifteen-million-dollar vans: Tasty Fresh Food Co sets the standard for charitable giving

Tasty Fresh Food Co is a lunch van service that produces and serves fresh sandwiches, salads, cakes and hot pastries to more than 25,000 workers daily across Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle and Perth.

Beginning as Tasty Trucks in 1979, the company started out as the quintessential Australian cottage family business. Colin Lear, who started the business as a one-man band, delivered sandwiches from his corner shop kitchen with the original ‘Foodmobile’ to workers in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

The need for fresh food and an ethical dilemma

Tasty Fresh food Co has a long-standing belief in (and commitment to) the fact that customers at the last lunch van stop should receive the same variety and quality of food as those at the first stop.

This commitment led to a higher level of food being prepared than was expected to be sold, resulting in around 16% of food for every Tasty Fresh Food Co lunch van being left over at the end of each day.

Philanthropy for growth

The company was very conscious of the environmental and ethical implications of throwing out the leftover food, so they offered to donate all excess stock to the Vinnies Soup Van program on each working day. Instead of throwing away 16% of food produced, it was instead given to the homeless and marginalised across Melbourne.

As the business grew from one van in 1979 to two in 1981, and now over 130 across Australia, the scope for leftover food donations has also grown dramatically.

Tasty Fresh Food Co is planning to double its total business size over the next five years, with a total of four new depots in Sydney, which will result in further growth in donations to soup vans in the Sydney area. Colin Lear, CEO of Tasty Fresh Food Co, attributes this growth to the high morale among employees and franchisees.

“The donations are driving sales and good rapport amongst customers. Van drivers, who sell the food to workers in industrial areas around Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle and Perth, have commented on the goodwill it creates with customers, increasing repeat sales and customer satisfaction,” said Lear.

Colin Lear, CEO of Tasty Fresh Food Co.

Extending a helping hand

Following the partnership to donate leftover food to St Vincent de Paul Society, it became apparent that the Vinnies Soup Vans didn’t have the capacity to take on hot food and cold food while maintaining food health and safety standards.

This led Tasty Fresh Food Co to additionally donate a fully fitted out, brand new food distribution van, with facilities to keep hot food warm and cold food refrigerated. The van, valued at approximately $80,000, was introduced to transport the donated food from Tasty Truck’s depot in Tullamarine to the Vinnies depot for distribution to the homeless and marginalised around Melbourne. This van, which was joined by two other new ones in recent years, meant that in addition to sandwiches and slices, Tasty Fresh Food Co was able to donate popular offerings of hot pies, sausage rolls and chicken wings.

“Without Tasty Fresh Food Co, Vinnies simply wouldn’t have enough food to go around. In my time in the industry, dealing with corporate donations, it has been extremely rare to see such a high level of support for such a long period of time. Tasty Fresh Food Co is truly a stalwart of the industry and its support, both in the form of quality and quantity of donations, is invaluable,” said Shannon Anderson, general manager marketing and fundraising, St Vincent de Paul Society Victoria Inc.

A long-term commitment

Today, the company donates over 250,000 meals each year. Over its 20-year relationship with the Vinnies Soup Van program, Tasty Fresh Food Co has donated over $15 million worth of food to the homeless and marginalised.

To encourage staff engagement with the Vinnies Soup Van program, Tasty Fresh Food Co implements a ‘Vinnies Volunteer Roster’ for staff to be able to donate their time to work on the soup vans, and is usually represented by three staff members a week. Feedback from employees and a very low staff turnover rate of less than 5% annually indicates that ‘Team Tasty’ love and are proud of what they do.

As well as supplying food for the weekday Vinnies Soup Vans, Tasty Fresh Food Co assists with the design and fit-out of the specially designed soup vans used by Vinnies. Tasty Fresh Food Co also maintains the Vinnies Soup Vans to keep them in running order and they are also looking to donate further vans as the business and its charitable program expands.

“Australian foodservice operators should not be throwing away excess stock at the end of every day when there are community organisations that can help distribute goods to people in need. What foodservice business operators should realise as well is that there are important operational benefits from establishing a giving program for excess stock which centre on greater employee engagement and profile-raising in the community. Tasty Fresh Food Co could not be prouder of our ongoing relationship with the Vinnies Soup Van program. We look forward to being a key supporter of the business now and for the long term,” said Colin Lear, CEO of Tasty Fresh Food Co.