Share-a-can day at SPC Ardmona assists residents of Innisfail

31 March 2006

At 11.00am on Saturday 1 April SPC Ardmona in partnership with Patrick Corporation will send a truck-load of produce from the Goulburn Valley to cyclone devastated Innisfail.

The gesture is part of Share-A-Can Day at SPC Ardmona’s Shepparton headquarters. In total 52,000 cans of SPC Ardmona baked beans, peaches, pears, spaghetti, tomatoes and two fruits made up into 4352 family hampers, will be sent to the victims of Cyclone Larry.

The Managing Director of SPC Ardmona Nigel Garrard said that Share-A-Can was about helping communities in need. “Just as we helped drought stricken farmers here in Victoria a couple of years ago, now we want to help the people of Queensland who’ve been so badly affected by Cyclone Larry,” Mr Garrard said.

This year is the 10th year of the annual Share-A-Can Day. In the last decade more than 2000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables harvested from the farms of the Goulburn Valley, 35 tonnes of baked beans and spaghetti, three million steel cans ; 250 fully-loaded semi-trailers; more than 4000 volunteers and more than $10 million worth of food have gone towards providing meals for half a million needy Victorians.

These are some of the remarkable statistics from Share-A-Can Day, Australia’s biggest single food relief operation, which has been held every year since 1997 at the SPC Ardmona cannery in Shepparton.

Every year a food mountain of canned and packaged peaches, pears, tomatoes, baked beans and pasta, worth more than $1 million, is donated to VicRelief and FoodBank Victoria for distribution to 350 welfare agency outlets

. This is enough to supply 20 to 25 per cent of their annual food supplies which are donated to people who are homeless or disadvantaged.

This year, the 10th Share-A-Can day on Saturday, April 1, will start like all the others over the past decade – at the crack of dawn an army of volunteers, most of them SPC Ardmona workers and their families, joined by business people, politicians, party leaders and Ministers, will meet over a bacon and eggs breakfast at the Shepparton factory site to prepare for the hard work ahead.

“This is the day when people in the bush help people in the city, because that’s where most of the food ends up,” Nigel Garrard said.

“We are proud of our Australian-grown and packaged produce, and it is amazing to think that we’ve been supplying it to so many people in need, every year for the past decade.

Mr Garrard paid tribute to the staff of SPC Ardmona, as well as the hundreds of other volunteers and the companies like Visy, BlueScope Steel, Labelmakers, Patrick Corporation, Manildra, Rinoldi Pasta, Patrick Corporation and Goulburn Valley Water who all pitch in with substantial contributions.

“We have people here who come off night shift, duck into a shower and get straight back on the production line for Share-A-Can. We’ve had retirees who’ve come back for the day. That’s the sort of community spirit it creates.” Gaylene Aitken, Team leader in Plastics at SPC Ardmona’s Shepparton site, has been part of the volunteer army for Share-A-Can for the past eight years.

“We can’t always give money, but we can give our time,” she said. “I went to a special thank-you dinner in Melbourne for some of the volunteers and the people who receive our and sat down with some of the homeless people over dinner. To see them enjoying our cans of fruit and the rest of the lovely food really affected me. It means a lot to be able to play a part in helping those who are doing it tough.”

The chair of VicRelief and Foodbank, Shirley Martin said that SPC Ardmona was a crucial sponsor.

“For ten years they have been providing canned foods for distribution and I can honestly say that many local agencies have come to depend on this assistance as they deal with homeless and distressed people on a daily level.

“What makes this partnership so special is that it allows us to provide a package of wide range of canned foods – baked beans, vegetables, soup and canned fruit, that can provide immediate meals for a family or an individual down on their luck and feeling desperate. The packages are always welcome because the product is known by all for its quality and dependability. During the drought, the drought packages provided by SPC Ardmona assisted many rural families to survive.

“All those involved in this wonderful effort on Share-A-Can day deserve sincere thanks, it should be acclaimed nation wide and even internationally as a great example of how businesses and local communities can work together to help those less fortunate. May it continue for the next ten years with even greater success!”

Senior politicians who have worked on Share-A-Can Day since it started in 1997 are returning to celebrate the 10th Share-A-Can Day and include the Federal Minister Workplace Participation and the Member for Murray, Dr Sharman Stone, the Victorian Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Tim Holding, Victorian National Party member for Shepparton Jeanette Powell, and State upper house member Wendy Lovell.

“SPC Ardmona is a corporate giant with a heart of gold,” Mrs Powell said. “I have been to every Share-A-Can day and they are truly unique. It’s a chance for everyone to muck in and do our bit.”

WHEN: SATURDAY APRIL 1, 2006.

WHERE: SPC ARDMONA, ANDREW FAIRLEY AVENUE, SHEPPARTON

TIME: 6 AM-1PM.

BREAKFAST PROVIDED!

Editors please note: History of Share-A-Can Day: The idea for Share-A-Can came in the late 1990s from the former managing director of SPC Ardmona, Dr Peter Thor, who was asked by directors of Vic Relief and Foodbank to consider ways to assist the emergency relief sector. Dr Thor had been involved with the charity “Loaves and Fishes” in America, and translated the idea into Share-A-Can, where Goulburn Valley fruit and vegetable growers would donate produce; SPC Ardmona workers would donate half a day’s time on the production lines, and companies would donate materials, goods and services.

The first Share-A-Can Day was in 1997, and in six hours $750,000 worth of canned product was processed and trucked to VicRelief and Foodbank (which have since merged). The following year the event was launched at Visyboard’s Dandenong plant where AFL star Alex Jesaulenko started up the production line for the manufacture of special labels. Nigel Garrard, the managing director of SPC Ardmona since 2000, expanded the event considerably, to the stage where it supplies a quarter of food needs for the state’s emergency relief.

Photos of Share-A-Can Days past available on request.

Contacts:

Nigel Garrard, Managing Director, SPC Ardmona: 03 9861 8901

Sally Loane, Director, Media and Public Affairs, Coca-Cola Amatil: 0416 162 336

Dr Sharman Stone, Federal MP for Murrray: 03 5821 5371

Jeanette Powell, Victorian MP for Shepparton: 03 5831 6944

The Hon.Wendy Lovell, Member of the Legislative Council: 03 5821 0055.

Shirley Martin – chair, VicRelief and Foodbank: 03 9362 8300

Contacts for agencies which receive food from Share-A-Can, including Collingwood Cottage and Wesley Footscray Outreach, available on request.

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