As the host of Zambrero’s 2015 Victorian Plate 4 Plate Meal Packaging Event I learnt a great deal about the implementation of our P4P initiative and our partnership with Rise Against Hunger. Despite reading and learning about the initiative it was difficult to envisage how and where our meals were being delivered and who the beneficiaries were. I knew attending the Vision Trip to Philippines would bring a truer understanding and appreciation for the work we do through our partnership with RAH but I didn’t realise at the time it would also be life changing.
We visited a small community outside Dumaguete in the Philippines. There I met a mother and her two children, a boy and a one-year-old girl named Lisa. They were so happy to see us, continuously smiling and so hospitable. I also have two young children so I immediately identified with this young family who are living without enough food or clean water, electricity or even bedding. Watching the mum take little Lisa across the mud, into their very basic bamboo home for her nap was heartbreaking. My family have so much in comparison. My daughter sleeps in a bed, with soft bedding, teddies and a night light. Little Lisa, is not so lucky.
It wasn’t until I returned to Australia that I fully appreciated all the simple services we all take for granted, water, gas, electricity, affordable housing and healthcare.
This trip has offered me a life changing realisation as to how lucky I am to have been born in Australia. I am proud to say I work with a company that is not only proactively doing something to end world hunger but also works to improve the lives of those living in poverty, through education.
What Zambrero and Rise Against Hunger do is real. The meals we provide through our Plate 4 Plate program are delivered to, and gratefully accepted by, people who are in desperate need of our support.
Yet, I’ve learnt that we are only scraping the surface of this problem. We take so much for granted, we have the resources to help and we need to do more.