Speaker 1: You're going through your fridge and you realize it's time
Speaker 1: for a bit of a cleanout. You get rid of
Speaker 1: the yogurt that you haven't touched in a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: some leftovers, and then some vegetables that are no longer
Speaker 1: holding their shape.
Speaker 2: But it's not that much food to.
Speaker 1: Throw away, right But when you hear that one third
Speaker 1: of all food in the world gets wasted, you might
Speaker 1: see some more potential in that wrinkley capsicum.
Speaker 2: Ronnie Carnt shorted.
Speaker 1: She was at the top of her game, running a
Speaker 1: very successful events business, but night after night she'd see
Speaker 1: all this beautiful food going in the bin. She got
Speaker 1: absolutely sick of seeing that waste, and it led to
Speaker 1: her throwing in her business and firing up the international
Speaker 1: charity OZ Harvest, Australia's leading food rescue organization. Ronnie's been
Speaker 1: saving food and giving it to those in need for
Speaker 1: almost twenty years in Australia now, and she started replicating
Speaker 1: that model.
Speaker 2: All over the world world.
Speaker 1: Ronnie Kahn is the ultimate efficiency expert, and so I
Speaker 1: was very excited to learn how she applies that to
Speaker 1: food and her time as she runs her multinational charity
Speaker 1: OZ Harvest. My name is doctor Amantha Imba. I'm an
Speaker 1: organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium.
Speaker 1: And this is how I work a show about how
Speaker 1: to help you do your best work. Anyone who meets
Speaker 1: Ronnie Kahan is immediately exposed to her warmth and passionate energy,
Speaker 1: and she has set some big targets for oz Harvest
Speaker 1: as a business. So how does Roddy approach goal setting?
Speaker 3: I would not call it goal setting, but I call
Speaker 3: it manifestation.
Speaker 2: H tell me more so.
Speaker 3: The only time I've ever really set a goal was
Speaker 3: to buy a particular house. And I know that it'll
Speaker 3: sound weird, so I absolutely envisaged that house. I envisaged it,
Speaker 3: and I actually did manifest that house. So what I
Speaker 3: mean by manifestation is when one sets an intention and
Speaker 3: works towards it. So it is a type of gold setting.
Speaker 3: I just I prefer to couch it in terms that
Speaker 3: a little less. You know, I don't think in corporate terms.
Speaker 1: Talk me through it, because like when I think manifestation,
Speaker 1: I think, wow, that's.
Speaker 2: Something we wore.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, let me tell you that ours Harvest is
Speaker 3: a total manifestation of a belief that there should be
Speaker 3: this organization. And when I talk manifestation, I'll give you
Speaker 3: an example. An organization might call me and say we
Speaker 3: need hamburgers and roles for Thursday, and I remind them
Speaker 3: that I'm not a catering company. I am a food
Speaker 3: rescue organization. However, I say, you never know what is possible.
Speaker 3: And honestly, it has almost never failed that somebody will
Speaker 3: call and say, we've just canceled a barbecue or so.
Speaker 3: I know that sounds absolutely like a really strange example,
Speaker 3: but it is a small example that can can grow
Speaker 3: to the really big. And I truly believe that OS
Speaker 3: Harvest is a manifestation of what I saw naively in
Speaker 3: my head when I decided to start it, and it
Speaker 3: just didn't occur to me that it could fail, and
Speaker 3: it didn't occur to me that it wouldn't come to be.
Speaker 2: Wow, how do you get to be like that?
Speaker 1: That seems like very unusual, that like you don't even
Speaker 1: consciously think that failure is an option.
Speaker 2: It is going to be like how do you get there? Roddy?
Speaker 3: You know they're definitely the caveat to that is. I
Speaker 3: think when one adds an element of cause related factor
Speaker 3: to what it is. You know, I did build a
Speaker 3: business prior to os Harvest, and again it as an entrepreneur,
Speaker 3: you set out to do things because you're kind of driven.
Speaker 3: You know that there's you see a need and you
Speaker 3: fulfill that need. I think that when one definitely when
Speaker 3: one adds this notion, and I believe every single business,
Speaker 3: and certainly not only in the for purpose world, but
Speaker 3: there isn't a business today that doesn't and should have,
Speaker 3: but doesn't have an element of cause related that is
Speaker 3: authentically value driven to it. And I think when you
Speaker 3: add that and you set out to create a business
Speaker 3: where the staff are going to be well treated, that
Speaker 3: the purpose of the business is to add value to
Speaker 3: customers in whatever way.
Speaker 1: Now, something that you've been incredibly good at doing, Ronnie,
Speaker 1: is forming amazing partnerships with very influential companies and people
Speaker 1: like Woolworths and the Duchess of Cornwall. Like, talk me
Speaker 1: through the Duchess of Cornwall.
Speaker 2: How does that start? Do you just like pick up
Speaker 2: the phone? Do you look her up? Like in the
Speaker 2: white pages?
Speaker 3: What's so amazing about our relationships? As it is with
Speaker 3: the press, people don't understand. They think I have like
Speaker 3: a full time pr company who are out there trying
Speaker 3: to look for opportunities for me or for us, and
Speaker 3: every single one of those come to us. So, for example,
Speaker 3: with the Duchess, we got a call from the Premier's
Speaker 3: department saying a very important person is considering coming to
Speaker 3: visit you. We need to come and see your premises
Speaker 3: and we need to talk to you, And they wouldn't
Speaker 3: tell us who it was, and we were speculating. We
Speaker 3: thought was it Obama? Who could it be? Because it
Speaker 3: us during that time and lots of police were visiting.
Speaker 3: The police came, the sniffer dogs came, the every department came,
Speaker 3: and finally we were sworn to secrecy and told that
Speaker 3: it was du Chess. We weren't allowed to tell anybody.
Speaker 3: I wasn't even allowed to tell my staff because of security.
Speaker 3: And so they chose. She was given as far as
Speaker 3: I understand, a number of possible places that she could visit,
Speaker 3: and she chose us, and she wasn't disappointed and nor
Speaker 3: were we. Wow, she fell in love with yellow, she
Speaker 3: fell in love with what we do to that, to
Speaker 3: the extent that she said, I'd love to see this
Speaker 3: in the UK. And that's why we have UK Harvest.
Speaker 3: She's the patron in the UK.
Speaker 1: I could imagine that with partnerships there would also be
Speaker 1: times when the partner is perhaps not fulfilling on their
Speaker 1: promises or following through on what they said they would do,
Speaker 1: and then that would lead to some confrontational conversations like
Speaker 1: what is your approach to having those more difficult conversations?
Speaker 3: Well, I certainly never shy away from difficult conversations. However,
Speaker 3: if you set up a partnership right, you really want
Speaker 3: to want to prevent the notion it's like getting into
Speaker 3: a relationship. Obviously down the track things can go off
Speaker 3: the rails, but you try and work all along the
Speaker 3: way to make sure that there's transparency, that there is communication,
Speaker 3: that there is you know, with any of our partnerships,
Speaker 3: the first thing we ask, it's pretty obvious what we need.
Speaker 3: We need money, right, everything revolves. The more funding we get,
Speaker 3: the more we can actually do. But we also need
Speaker 3: skills and we also need added value things. So the
Speaker 3: first thing for us with any relationship is what can
Speaker 3: we give you? In any of those major partnerships, what
Speaker 3: when we bring to you? Because it's about the value exchange.
Speaker 3: So one we get funding, but two we also want
Speaker 3: to get their skills. They're volunteering. We want we want
Speaker 3: their business to get added value by the relationship with us.
Speaker 3: And so really, I don't think I've ever had to
Speaker 3: have a confrontational conversation with one of our partners because
Speaker 3: we really try and be as clear as possible about
Speaker 3: the expectations what you can expect from us and what
Speaker 3: we expect from you. One of the things I always
Speaker 3: say to people in that very first interview or that
Speaker 3: very last interview, I always ask them how they how
Speaker 3: are they feedback? Now, I don't know about you, but
Speaker 3: I've never heard a single person not say to me, oh,
Speaker 3: I love feedback. It's an opportunity for growth. And I say, really, So,
Speaker 3: when I'm going to come back to you and say
Speaker 3: remember this conversation, I want you to remember this conversation.
Speaker 2: Do you have an approach for giving people tough feedback?
Speaker 3: Yeah, kindness, respect with an opportunity for growth personal growth
Speaker 3: and development. Every single difficult conversation is an opportunity for growth.
Speaker 3: And so that's really the way I like to look
Speaker 3: at it.
Speaker 1: So what's an example of that, Like, let's just say
Speaker 1: I was working for you, Ronnie, and I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm like, maybe I.
Speaker 2: What if I done wrong?
Speaker 1: I don't know, Like maybe I didn't deliver on a
Speaker 1: project when I said I was going to because I
Speaker 1: don't know, I got distracted with other things.
Speaker 3: So we talk about I would I would call you
Speaker 3: in and say, look, I think we we there's something
Speaker 3: that's challenging me. We looked at this deadline we thought
Speaker 3: we were going to commit. Can you tell me what
Speaker 3: tools did you not have? What do you think we
Speaker 3: could have done better to allow you to achieve? So
Speaker 3: you're first of all taking away the guilting. You know,
Speaker 3: I really try and look around and say could we
Speaker 3: have done better? Obviously, if if there's no other reason
Speaker 3: other than that person didn't do it, I'd say, well,
Speaker 3: what do you think you'd need? And also we've never
Speaker 3: I've never been in their shoes. How do I know
Speaker 3: what challenges they had along the way? So my job
Speaker 3: is to try and find out what were the what
Speaker 3: were the reasons they did fulfill? If it's lack of capability,
Speaker 3: why did we give them a job that they couldn't fulfill?
Speaker 3: If it was disrespect on their part, we need to
Speaker 3: talk about culture. We need to talk about attitude. We
Speaker 3: need to talk about what it means to work in
Speaker 3: an environment where everybody is committed, connected and dependent on
Speaker 3: the other.
Speaker 2: H that's very nice.
Speaker 1: Now, before we started recording, I was asking how your
Speaker 1: day had gone, and it sounded like to me it
Speaker 1: had been a very full on day with everything that
Speaker 1: you've done.
Speaker 2: And I said, what's your what's your headspace?
Speaker 1: Like? Are you feeling shattered? And You're like no, I'm
Speaker 1: full of energy. And we're recording this at four o'clock
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, So I wanted to like, what habits
Speaker 1: or rituals or routines do you have for staying so energized.
Speaker 3: So first of all, I wake up every morning with gratitude.
Speaker 3: This morning had happened to be at about five point thirty,
Speaker 3: But it is gratitude that I'm in a bed, Gratitude
Speaker 3: that I have roof over my head, Gratitude that I
Speaker 3: have a window that I can look out if it's
Speaker 3: black or sunny. So that's it's my choice, my choice
Speaker 3: as to how I'm going to deal with the day.
Speaker 3: And I've chosen every single day to make my choice.
Speaker 3: A day that's filled with goodness, joy, excitement, respect, all
Speaker 3: of the values, courage, opportunity for growth. That's how I
Speaker 3: set up my day This morning. I went for a
Speaker 3: walk at six o'clock to watch the sunrise, came home,
Speaker 3: had my first meeting at eight, and have been in
Speaker 3: meetings ever since. But each one is stimulating, is challenging
Speaker 3: their problems to solve. There's joys to share.
Speaker 1: And with waking up feeling grateful, like is there is
Speaker 1: there a conscious process that you go through or is
Speaker 1: it just now unconscious where you wake up and your
Speaker 1: mind is just filled with the things that you are
Speaker 1: grateful for?
Speaker 2: What does that look like?
Speaker 3: It is a conscious it is now just part of
Speaker 3: my life. But you know, I've been practicing mindfulness, aware
Speaker 3: of spirituality, working on look. I've always had a lot
Speaker 3: of energy and I've always been a very very positive person.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you've read my book, but you
Speaker 3: know I've had some extraordinary role models around seeing the
Speaker 3: best in every situation. And I think that by this age,
Speaker 3: I'm very grateful to say that it's part of my life,
Speaker 3: but I think it's achievable. I think it's a bad attitude.
Speaker 3: I think knowing that we have a choice every single day.
Speaker 3: So I'll share a story.
Speaker 4: I was talking to five thousand and sixteen year olds
Speaker 4: and I'm thinking, Holy moly, what on earth am I
Speaker 4: going to say that's going to just excite and interest five.
Speaker 3: Thy sixteen year olds in an auditorium. Anyway, I came
Speaker 3: on stage. I don't know why, but I must have
Speaker 3: rocked it. There was dead silence, they listened, they were
Speaker 3: seemed to be inspired, and it was just a beautiful,
Speaker 3: beautiful atmosphere and vibe. And then there were questions and
Speaker 3: one kid from the very back of the auditorium in
Speaker 3: a hoodie couldn't see any I couldn't see his face,
Speaker 3: couldn't see anything, just could see a little shape in
Speaker 3: a hoodie, says, could you please tell me what happens
Speaker 3: when you have a bad day? And so I said, well,
Speaker 3: I've made a conscious choice that when I wake up
Speaker 3: in the morning, I could be grumpy or I could
Speaker 3: be happy, and I've chosen to be happy, and I
Speaker 3: make the choices through the day. Anyway, this kid just said,
Speaker 3: I think you might have just changed my life. And
Speaker 3: then he bounded down. He said, could I please have
Speaker 3: a hug? It's a sixteen year old boy.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: He bounded down and I reached the stage. I jumped
Speaker 3: off the stage and we had this beautiful hug. Anyway,
Speaker 3: I thanked him for his courage because he also shared
Speaker 3: that he had received food from US Harvest. Now, to
Speaker 3: say that in front of five thousand others, it's pretty brave. Anyway.
Speaker 3: I then somebody shouted out and said, how would we
Speaker 3: get hold of you? And I said, oh, Ronnie dot
Speaker 3: com at osharvest dot org. It didn't even occurred to
Speaker 3: me to say info at or not give my anyway.
Speaker 3: I got, honestly a few hundred emails, but you know
Speaker 3: what most of them said, I wish I could have
Speaker 3: had a hug. Ah. Wow, power of connection.
Speaker 2: That's beautiful.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Now you said you've had a lot of really great
Speaker 2: role models, and I imagine you've received a lot of
Speaker 2: really great advice. I want to know what are some
Speaker 2: of the best pieces of career or life advice that
Speaker 2: you've received along the way.
Speaker 3: I think the most powerful Israeli. Some my spiritual teacher
Speaker 3: who I met just after i'd started US Harvest, just said, Ronnie,
Speaker 3: go out and do good. It's the most important thing
Speaker 3: you can do. Go out and do good, and I've
Speaker 3: been committed to doing good ever since.
Speaker 2: You make it sound so simple when you.
Speaker 3: Are consciously aware that you want to try and respect
Speaker 3: people and intentionally, yeah, you want to bring out the
Speaker 3: best in people. Obviously, I'm sure that many times I failed,
Speaker 3: But all you can do is do your best and
Speaker 3: try and be the best you can be every day.
Speaker 1: Are there any other pieces of advice that have that
Speaker 1: have really stuck with you and influenced you.
Speaker 3: Both my parents had serious challenges along the way. My
Speaker 3: dad had an accident, he was in hospital for years.
Speaker 3: My mother had to manage the family, and you know,
Speaker 3: my mother always just said you could just put your
Speaker 3: next foot forward, just go out and do it. You know,
Speaker 3: she wasn't one for sitting at home and saying, oh
Speaker 3: my god, what the hell's going to happen to us?
Speaker 3: How are we going to make a living? How are
Speaker 3: we going to do this? She just went out and
Speaker 3: said do it. And so, in a way, I think
Speaker 3: that gives you courage when you see that around you.
Speaker 1: Ronnie will be back in a moment talking about where
Speaker 1: her best ideas come from and why she almost never
Speaker 1: watches TV.
Speaker 2: And by the way, If you haven't.
Speaker 1: Connected with me on the social channels, you might want
Speaker 1: to because I share a lot of content. I'm on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1: You can find me just search for Amantha Imba. You
Speaker 1: can find me on Twitter at Amantha and you can
Speaker 1: find me on Instagram at Amantha I which I've recently
Speaker 1: gotten back into Instagram after a several year hiatus, and
Speaker 1: I'm enjoying it quite a lot.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: As a leader, you talk about the power of authenticity,
Speaker 1: and I feel like you are one of, you know,
Speaker 1: perhaps few leaders.
Speaker 2: That really walk the talk.
Speaker 1: So like, what are you doing and what advice would
Speaker 1: you give to someone who is trying to I don't know,
Speaker 1: be a more authentical lie.
Speaker 3: All I can tell you is I am the same
Speaker 3: person if I'm with the Duchess of Cornwall, or I'm
Speaker 3: with you, or I'm with our Prime Minister, there is
Speaker 3: only one me, and I've committed to bring my whole
Speaker 3: self to work. And I think they're in that sentence.
Speaker 3: If every single person felt comfortable to bring their whole
Speaker 3: selves to work, I think they would find that there
Speaker 3: is no other way to be.
Speaker 1: And why do you think people find it so hard
Speaker 1: to bring themselves to work?
Speaker 3: Because I think that when we brought up the fear around,
Speaker 3: there's fear around admitting one's weaknesses, one's strengths. There's this
Speaker 3: notion that you know, you have to put on a front,
Speaker 3: and I think that very it's very challenging for many
Speaker 3: people to not be who they think other people would be.
Speaker 3: You know, so much goes back to our childhood. So
Speaker 3: much goes back to how our parents inadvertently who while
Speaker 3: they were trying to do their best, shaped to the
Speaker 3: kind of people we were going to be, our teachers,
Speaker 3: the demands made on us. You know, we came to school,
Speaker 3: nobody said, just you know, be as creative as you
Speaker 3: want to be. If you were sitting in maths and
Speaker 3: you were drawing, you were told you were dumb at maths.
Speaker 3: You know, you weren't told, wow, that's a beautiful drawing.
Speaker 3: Spend more time being creative and let's try and get
Speaker 3: you through the math.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about creativity because I've heard that
Speaker 1: you say that you have I have new ideas every day,
Speaker 1: and I want to know for you, like, what how
Speaker 1: do you deliberately I guess foster your creativity and your ideas.
Speaker 3: But being in my bliss by doing things that bring
Speaker 3: me joy, by surrounding myself with people who stimulate me
Speaker 3: and excite me, and giving myself the space to think
Speaker 3: about what else could we do? How could we do
Speaker 3: this better? You know, I think entrepreneurs are always always looking,
Speaker 3: looking and thinking and dreaming. You know, when I think
Speaker 3: pre ores harvest, you know, I'd hear about a nail bar,
Speaker 3: I think, oh my god, I'm going to start nail
Speaker 3: bars all over Australia. I taced yogurt, I think, oh
Speaker 3: my god, okay, we're going to do yogurt. I just never.
Speaker 3: I don't know why. My mind is always open to
Speaker 3: thinking why couldn't we do that even better? And so
Speaker 3: everything stimulates me from walking around and hearing chattering in
Speaker 3: the in the background, looking at nature, or reading leadership books,
Speaker 3: self help books, motivational books. I don't have a TV,
Speaker 3: so I barely watch I barely watch TV. I spend
Speaker 3: time thinking and being creative.
Speaker 1: It's like I'm hearing you describe that, and I'm imagining
Speaker 1: someone who's just really present, Like you're walking along, you're
Speaker 1: listening to conversations and looking at things that you can see,
Speaker 1: as opposed to just being sort of off with the
Speaker 1: fairies and not present.
Speaker 3: I'm not on a podcast, I'm not got earphones in
Speaker 3: my ears.
Speaker 2: That's interesting.
Speaker 3: Definitely, definitely try and be as present. Being present is
Speaker 3: all I've got. This is all we have right here
Speaker 3: and right now. It's the only time I can be
Speaker 3: the best I can be now.
Speaker 1: I don't think you've got an EA who has helped
Speaker 1: make this interview happen. And I'm always really curious as
Speaker 1: to how people use their assistance.
Speaker 2: Like I first had an assistant many.
Speaker 1: Years ago, and I reckon it took me years to
Speaker 1: actually work out how do you work really well with
Speaker 1: an assistant? And I want to know what, like, how
Speaker 1: do you work with yours? What are some of the
Speaker 1: things that your assistant helps you with.
Speaker 3: It took me a long time to understand how that
Speaker 3: would be of benefit and how to allow someone to
Speaker 3: help me manage my life. But as the days got
Speaker 3: more for an eteic, I'd say yes to everything. Yes,
Speaker 3: yes I'll do this podcast, Yes i'll meet you, Yes,
Speaker 3: of course we'll do this. And of course I was
Speaker 3: either letting people down or being in the wrong place
Speaker 3: at the wrong time, because there was just an enormous
Speaker 3: amount going on through my through my daily life. And
Speaker 3: so when Mala came into my life, she saw that
Speaker 3: and started making order. She'd say, you need to be
Speaker 3: here at this time, and that meant I could be
Speaker 3: present doing exactly what I needed to do at that time,
Speaker 3: and then not having let somebody else down because I
Speaker 3: wanted to be present for both of them at the
Speaker 3: same time.
Speaker 1: What else does she do that, I guess, you know,
Speaker 1: would surprise people in terms of how how she sort
Speaker 1: of helps you be amazing at what you do.
Speaker 2: Oh well.
Speaker 3: In organizing my life now and certainly through COVID, she
Speaker 3: puts she makes sure their little gaps, so she'll put
Speaker 3: in take a break. Really absolutely, so when today I
Speaker 3: had a full, full day, she had put in there
Speaker 3: was forty five minutes that was take a break. Now,
Speaker 3: sometimes it doesn't work out because that's when I can
Speaker 3: make phone calls or that's when something can happen, but
Speaker 3: it is also the time when I could grab a
Speaker 3: sandwich or make myself a cup of tea.
Speaker 1: Now, before I logged on for this interview, I was
Speaker 1: looking in my fridge and I've got some lettuce that
Speaker 1: is looking very ordinary.
Speaker 2: I've got some cute numbers that are very soft, shall
Speaker 2: we say yes?
Speaker 1: And also some cherry tomatoes that have had better days.
Speaker 1: Like So, Ronnie, I want to talk about what people
Speaker 1: can do at home and what I can be doing
Speaker 1: to reduce waste and what I'm throwing out because I
Speaker 1: feel like, oh, how do I make something out of
Speaker 1: that wonderful?
Speaker 3: So with your lettuce? Do you have an onion?
Speaker 2: By any chance, I can't eat onion. It doesn't agree
Speaker 2: with me.
Speaker 3: Not a problem. Take your lettuce, put it in a
Speaker 3: pot with some stock, aha, and hush it up. If
Speaker 3: you had a potato, if you had any other veggies
Speaker 3: other than the cucumber, we won't put the cucumber in there.
Speaker 3: You carrots, carrots beautiful, throw them in there because you
Speaker 3: will have beautiful soup. Beautiful.
Speaker 1: Give me give me some other tips that okay, a
Speaker 1: common things that people would normally throw out, but what
Speaker 1: can we do to rescue them?
Speaker 3: Well that this is the first thing that everybody throws
Speaker 3: out because it sits in the bottom of the fridge
Speaker 3: till it goes sludgeye, and then we forget about it,
Speaker 3: and then it's too late to do anything, and then
Speaker 3: we kind of throw it in the bin, and we
Speaker 3: don't even put it into compost. Do you know that
Speaker 3: if you throw a lettuce in the bin, it will
Speaker 3: take twenty five years to decompose. Put it in compast
Speaker 3: it'll take two weeks.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3: Wow, you tell me if you're ever going to throw
Speaker 3: a lettuce away again into the bin.
Speaker 2: I'm never going to do that, Ronnie, never ever. Good.
Speaker 3: So don't ever buy the two for one specials if
Speaker 3: you think you might not use you both your lettuces
Speaker 3: unless you're going to make lettuce soup.
Speaker 2: Wow? What else? What else can I be doing?
Speaker 3: So? Tomatoes when they go a little funny, are divine grilled.
Speaker 3: You can add them to free Tata with your cucumbers.
Speaker 3: If you think they're a little soft. All you have
Speaker 3: to do is you can cut them into rounds, or
Speaker 3: you can slice them and put them into a little
Speaker 3: bit of vinegar, water, pickles, pickling peppers, bay leaves and
Speaker 3: pickle them. These things are not hard to do. I'm
Speaker 3: sitting with a couple of apples that look a little soft.
Speaker 3: As soon as I get off this call, I'm just
Speaker 3: going to chop them up, put them with some sultanas,
Speaker 3: cinnamon stick, a little bit of water, cook them up,
Speaker 3: and I have the most beautiful stewed apples.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: What are some other things that you find are pretty
Speaker 1: common in households that get thrown out when you could
Speaker 1: be doing something pretty amazing with them.
Speaker 3: Bread's another big one that we throw out. It's obvious
Speaker 3: that you could make bread and butter pudding, but you
Speaker 3: could use it for French toast. You can freeze bread beautifully.
Speaker 3: So if you buy a loaf of bread and you
Speaker 3: think you're not going to use it all, slice it.
Speaker 3: Put half of that bread in the freezer. Don't buy
Speaker 3: the next two days later. Use what's in your freezer.
Speaker 3: You know, our freezer is like the pores button. We're
Speaker 3: not using our freezers well enough.
Speaker 2: I like that. How about shopping?
Speaker 1: Like, what should I be thinking about when I'm at
Speaker 1: a supermarket or at the paran markets where I do
Speaker 1: a lot of my shopping and I'm buying produce.
Speaker 2: What needs to be going on in my head?
Speaker 3: The most important thing is nothing should be going on
Speaker 3: in your head, because you should have a list in
Speaker 3: your hand. Because before you go shopping, you want to
Speaker 3: check your fridge, you want to check your pantry, and
Speaker 3: you want to make a list. It's going to save
Speaker 3: your money and you're only going to buy what you need,
Speaker 3: which you can then use within the next few days.
Speaker 3: So really we've got this beautiful mantra. Look by cook store,
Speaker 3: Look what's in your fridge and pantry. Buy what you need,
Speaker 3: store it properly. So for example, if you've bought too
Speaker 3: many herbs, freeze, if you've bought too much, or you
Speaker 3: think you're not going to use it, allocate and work
Speaker 3: out how but store it and then cook it and
Speaker 3: eat it and of course use the leftovers.
Speaker 2: So simple like how many times a week would you
Speaker 2: be doing food shopping.
Speaker 3: So I don't do big shops. I do little shops.
Speaker 3: I buy what I need. I'd rather go past the
Speaker 3: organic shop or at my market I now do. We're
Speaker 3: very fortunate in New South Wales because US Harvest does
Speaker 3: a fruit and vege box, so I get my fruit
Speaker 3: and vege once a week from ours Harvest, so it's
Speaker 3: veggies with a cause and I make that last through
Speaker 3: the week. So I try not to buy other things
Speaker 3: through the week. My supermarket shopping, I buy very little
Speaker 3: processed food. I mainly buy fresh, so I don't do
Speaker 3: big supermarket shops, and I'd rather go and buy my
Speaker 3: milk every few days if I'm I use almond milk
Speaker 3: or you know, I buy my eggs fresh from the
Speaker 3: market once a week, so I'm really try not to
Speaker 3: do a lot of shopping. If I'm going to buy fish,
Speaker 3: I'll buy it on the day for the day.
Speaker 2: I love that, so.
Speaker 3: Fresh, local and as little as possible, and stretch it
Speaker 3: as far as possible.
Speaker 2: Fantastic.
Speaker 1: I'm loving those tips and I'm very excited to get
Speaker 1: to my floppy lettuce in the fridge after this chat
Speaker 1: now running. My last question for you is for people
Speaker 1: that want to find out more about oz Harvest.
Speaker 2: And connect with you, what is the best way for
Speaker 2: people to do that?
Speaker 3: So the best way is to go on to our website,
Speaker 3: which is usharvest dot org. There should be every frequently
Speaker 3: asked questions. There's a way to find out where we are,
Speaker 3: what we do, how people can volunteer. Obviously we've got
Speaker 3: some beautiful programs like I Fight Food Waste program. We've
Speaker 3: got you know, my memoirs out a Repurposed Life that
Speaker 3: will give deep insight into really where we can find purpose,
Speaker 3: you know, how we live a meaningful life. It's really
Speaker 3: I wrote the book because I can't mentor everybody and
Speaker 3: hope that people would find some answers there. So I
Speaker 3: think that's you know, really, those are the best ways
Speaker 3: to find out more about us.
Speaker 2: Fantastic. That's awesome. Well, Ronnie.
Speaker 1: I have loved chatting with you and learning about how
Speaker 1: you think and do things. It is very inspiring. So
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I know it's a little unusual,
Speaker 3: but hopefully I'm not put in the mental home yet.
Speaker 3: Definitely not awesome.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed my chat with Ronnie, And if
Speaker 1: you have not hit subrill follow to the How I
Speaker 1: Work podcast, you might want to do that because next
Speaker 1: week I'm very excited to have Norman Swan on the
Speaker 1: show and we talk about how Australia's best known health
Speaker 1: journalist is coping in Sydney's Lockdown and his tips for
Speaker 1: staying healthy in what are very tough conditions. Sorry, hit
Speaker 1: subscribe or follow if you haven't already. How I Work
Speaker 1: is produced by Inventium with production support from Dead Set Studios.
Speaker 2: The producer for this.
Speaker 1: Episode was Jenna Coda, and thank you to Matt Nimba,
Speaker 1: who did the audio mix and makes everything sound awesome.
Speaker 2: See you next time.