Plenty of answers, right here

A social enterprise is an organisation that applies commercial strategies to maximise improvements in human and environmental well-being.  Plenty is a social enterprise with no shareholders or investors.  We run our meal gifting service for the express purpose of fighting food insecurity in Western Australia.

After all the costs involved in getting our meal gifts to market, every cent left is directed to our Community Program Partners to fund the food relief programs that they operate.  Plenty exists for the express purpose of fighting food insecurity in our community.

We use commercial tactics to generate profit to fight food insecurity in Western Australia.  You can think about this in terms of the “best bang for your buck”.  If you have $100 and you want to make the most impact with your money, we’d tell you to give it directly to a reputable charity like our Community Program Partners.  But, if you have $100 and you need to buy a gift for someone, we’d encourage you to consider buying a Plenty meal gift.  Not only is this gift a practice and thoughtful alternative to other gift delivery options on the market, the profits from your purchase will provide a warm meal and social connection for someone doing it tough when they visit one of our Community Program Partners.

We’re not asking for people to stop donating to charities and start donating to us. Charities literally exist on donations in order to keep serving in their community.  So, keep donating and collect those tax-deductible receipts for tax time!  What we are asking you to consider is, the next time someone you know needs a meal and you’re not able to make one and drop it off to them, please consider purchasing a Plenty meal gift for them.  Your purchase will go a long way to not only helping out the person who receives your meal gift, your purchase will also provide a meal for someone in our local community experiencing food insecurity.  Let’s feed two birds with one scone!

Our goal is to run our business as efficiently as possible so that we can direct as much profit as we can to our local Community Program Partners.  In order to run our business successfully, we do need to pay staff and suppliers.  If we didn’t do this, there’d be no business to run and no funds to distribute.

Plenty’s Board, made up of highly experienced and professional volunteers, oversees our annual budget, our profit and loss statements and our balance sheet.  We also submit annual financial reports to the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission, which you can view here.  This means that what we distribute to our Community Program Partners is 100% transparent.  There are no fat bonuses, luxury watches or ‘work trips’ to the Maldives.  We absolutely value our staff and suppliers, and pay them market rates to provide us with the excellent services that they do. 

Happy staff and suppliers + happy customers = profits for our Community Program Partners.

Our purpose is to direct our profits to local organisations operating food relief programs and serving their local communities in Western Australia.  We are currently partnering with Feed the Little Children Inc in Broome and The Haven Centre Inc in Victoria Park, Perth.

Feed the Little Children Inc.

Located in beautiful Broome, Western Australia, Feed the Little Children Inc have been delivering meals to children living below the poverty line since January 2012.  They’ve delivered more than 32,000 meals to Broome kids and pregnant and nursing mothers, and run cooking classes to educate children about healthy eating and nutrition.  FTLC are making a measurable impact in their community.  The area has seen a significant reduction in hospitalisations for ear infection due to improved child nutrition, as well as an almost 50% reduction in young people charged with property offences on the nights that FTLC operate their meal delivery service.  You can find out more about how Feed the Little Children Inc are successfully tackling child poverty in Broome by visiting their website and following them on Instagram @feedthelittlechildren.

The Haven Centre Inc

Nestled in the heart of Victoria Park’s bustling café strip, The Haven Centre Inc offers hot meals to those experiencing homelessness, the socially isolated or those who just need a helping hand.  The Haven is a caring and safe place for people to visit for a warm meal and a chat with one of the friendly team of volunteers.  Along with their meal service and food hampers, The Haven also offer laundry services, street health care services, hairdressing services and onsite shower facilities.  You can find out more about The Haven Centre Inc and opportunities to join their volunteer team here.

While we love the idea of our customers engaging in a process of nominating where the profits from their purchase go, in reality, this can actually negatively impact our Community Program Partners.  Not only would this impose an administrative burden on Plenty, which would impact our profitability, the food relief programs that our Community Program Partners operate are all equally worthy of our support.  We’ve identified these organisations based on their valuable impact in their community and their service to some of the most vulnerable members of the community they’re operating in.  And we’ve made a commitment to support their food relief programs, regardless of who might win a popularity contest at the checkout. 

So, to answer your question, unfortunately you can’t choose where the profits from your purchase go — we hope you understand and can appreciate why.

We partner with local organisations that meet our funding criteria based on the impact of their food relief programs in the community and their approach to fighting food insecurity in Western Australia.

The reality is, many food relief programs are aligned with and founded upon a religious belief, and continue to be integral in the expression of that faith tradition.  We don’t discriminate against a food relief program based on their religious position, but we do ensure that the food relief programs we fund don’t discriminate who they service on any grounds, including an individual’s religion or belief system.

At Plenty, we don’t believe in reinventing the wheel.  The world doesn’t need more food relief programs, existing food relief programs need more support.  We’ve chosen to partner with local and experienced organisations operating vital food relief programs in their local community.  These organisations are best placed to identify the needs of the community.  They’re working at the coalface of food insecurity in Western Australia and have been for some time.  And too often their energies and efforts are directed away from their vital food relief service provision toward fundraising activities.  We’re proud of the part we play in working to provide funding for our Community Program Partners – so that they can continue doing what they do best.

We’re a start-up that’s starting local.  There are so many worthy food relief programs operating across the globe but we had to start somewhere, so we’ve partnered with local food relief programs run by grassroots organisations in Western Australia.

You might be surprised to know that more than one in eight adults and one in six children live below the poverty line in Australia, and that the poverty rate in Australia is worse than in most other developed countries.*  While there is much need overseas, there’s also plenty of need here at home.  We’re seeking to meet this need where it exists, and we’re starting in WA.

The good news is, as we grow, so will our impact.  Our next step is to expand our meal gifting service into other Australian capital cities and to partner with local food relief organisations based in those States and Territories.  But we’re not content to stop there either – our vision is that Plenty will one day have an impact on global food insecurity.  But we have to start somewhere – from local beginnings.

*Davidson, Saunders, Bradbury and Wong, Poverty in Australia 2020 Report, Australian Council of Social Service

We have two Community Program Partners and they’re both based in WA.  You can find out more about them here.

We’ve chosen to start local.  We’ve launched our meal gifting service in Perth, Western Australia.  So, we’re partnering with grassroots organisations that operate impactful food relief programs in WA.

But, we don’t want to stop here. Our next step is to expand our meal gifting service into other Australian capital cities so that more people can send and receive thoughtful and practical meal gifts, and more food relief programs can receive funding support from our profit-for purpose enterprise.  As we grow, so will our impact.

We take our Community Program Partnerships very seriously.  The organisations we partner with are aligned with our vision — to fight food insecurity and build hope, generosity and kindness in our community.  Together we are building community, one bowl at a time.

Our Community Program Partners must meet our due diligence requirements, including the requirement that our Community Program Partners be registered with the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission.  This means they’re subject to the same annual reporting and compliance requirements that we are, which can give our customers the confidence of knowing that their money is going to a registered charitable organisation.

Our Community Program Partners can demonstrate the measurable impact of their food relief programs in meeting the needs of their local community, as well as having good governance structures to ensure that they are run well and are sustainable going forward.

We have the greatest respect for the work that our Community Program Partners do and we’re honoured to be able to support them by providing them with the financial support they need to do what they do best.