Despite a packed day of events in punishing driving rain in Canberra yesterday the Duchess of Cornwall looked fresh and relaxed this morning as she arrived at the OzHarvest facility in Sydney’s Alexandria dressed in a beautiful cream wool coat with a flared skirt over a silk cream dress, both by Dior.
The dress was a departure from The British designers the Duchess has been wearing although she has worn Dior in the past on her first royal visit to Paris.
She was met by Founder and CEO of OzHarvest, Ms Ronni Kahn, 63, Chairman of The Board, Mr Richard Deutsch and Mrs Keryn Baird, wife of the NSW Premier.
The charitable organisation rescues surplus food, which would otherwise be discarded, from restaurants, retailers, food outlets and corporate kitchens, and delivers it at no cost to charitable agencies who feed men, women and children in need.
The Duchess was totally blown away by the set up which employs 95 staff nationwide, 45 in its HQ in here in Alexandria.
When Ms Kahn told the Royal about the training program the charity runs giving vulnerable and disadvantaged youths (age 15-25) the chance to learn food skills and study for Certificates 1 and 2 in hospitality, the Duchess replied: “It is so important . My husband [Prince Charles ] does work in this area. He would have loved to see this.”
“I would love to show it to him,” replied Kahn.
Now in its 11th year of operations, OzHarvest has more than 30 vehicles on the road-operating across Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Canberra, Melbourne, Newcastle and Perth.
Since inception, OzHarvest has rescued and diverted over 12,000 tonnes of quality excess food from going to landfill; delivered the equivalent of 42 million meals to agencies providing food assistance to those in need; collected excess food from 1,500 donors and delivered it to over 600 charitable agencies.
The Duchess started her tour at the Training Kitchen and met students Patricia Sharma, 17, and Hollie Smith, 19, of the Nourish Program and Program Manager, Ms Belinda Woollett.
Kneading dough they chatted freely with Camilla who yesterday had happily tucked in to scrambled eggs and ice cream, and said “I wish I was going to eat some of this.”
Next the royal walked into the Preparation Kitchen where she saw a Cooking For a Cause session with Chef for a Cause, Mr Travis Harvey.
Here cooking lessons in core skills like bread and pasta making are sold to corporate supporters such as Virgin Mobile, Virgin and Amex and today they were learning how to make tortellini with spinach and ricotta, meals that would later be served at corporate dinners.
“I wish I was going to do the course, it looks very good fun. If only one had the time,” the Duchess said wistfully.
She was swiftly handed a pasta cutter and under the guidance of chef Harvey started cutting her own pasta. She seemed a natural and was praised by Harvey.
“It’s not as good as it should be,” said Camilla “but I’m sure it will taste just as good.”
At the next table students were pounding fresh basil grown in the OzHarvest garden in a huge mortar with a pestle. The Duchess delighted in the rich aroma of freshly pounded basil.
“We don’t have any processed food here” explained Kahn. “We do it the real way.” Chrissy Mulyneux was making a mouth-watering bread and butter pudding with dried apricots and raisins.
“My husband loves this,” shared Camilla.
“I’d quite like some for my dinner,” quick as a flash Kahn replied “I think others have plans for your dinner, but we can send a tray over. We are all about feeding the hungry,” she joked.
Her Royal Highness spoke to invited supporters, volunteers and the OzHarvest family in a packed room personally meeting every single person.
Supermarket giant Woolworths has just come on board as an OzHarvest sponsor and Andrew Hicks was keen to talk to the Duchess about his company’s commitment.
“She said this work is so important, that there’s far too much food wastage,” Hicks said afterwards, adding, “I told her we have a plan to have zero food wastage by 2020.”
Schoolgirl sisters Eugenie Little ,10, and Audrey Little, 11, daughters of the Chairman of the Goodman Foundation which leases the warehouse space free of charge to OzHarvest, proudly presented the Duchess with white orchid posies, one of three bouquets given to the royal, the other being sunflowers in the yellow and black colours of the charity.
Outside the Duchess inspected a van filled with fresh produce ready to be delivered to people in need.
“I can’t get over it. It’s wonderful what is being done here,” enthused the Duchess.
She then walked through the industrial estate bidding a cheery ‘hello’ to a bank of public who had gather despite this being a private event, to the Good + Harvest Community Garden.
“You have everything here, ” said the Duchess looking at the impressive beds of fresh veg growing.
Sarah Brill who created the garden from donated plants left over after a garden show looked thrilled to be getting the royal stamp of approval.
Before leaving The Duchess was given a basket of gifts including an Oz Harvest T shirt and the royal signed the OzHarvest visitor book, a wooden spoon which then goes up on the wall.
The prized “Camilla” spoon will no doubt take pride of place here.
As the motorcade left a huge round of uproarious applause broke out.
