By Matthew Sims
Yarraville resident Katy Barfield has been celebrated for her endeavours in reducing how much of Australia’s food goes to waste.
Awarded an honorary Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) on Thursday, January 26, the British citizen was a director and founding chief executive of food rescue organisation Second Bite and is the current founder and chief executive of tech-based food rescue platform Yumefood.
Ms Barfield said she decided to live in Australia when she met her husband Russell.
“It’s a cliche how it all happened,” she said.
“I came here with friends and fell in love with it.”
Ms Barfield said she used to own a small bar in Melbourne with her husband and discovered her interest in helping drive down food waste when she saw how much her chef disposed every day.
“He would just throw it in the bin,” she said.
“That was sort of a lightbulb moment.”
Ms Barfield said the things she had seen and learnt about food waste since were “quite confronting”.
“We rescued millions and millions of kilograms of food,” she said.
“No one was really rescuing food back then.
“Happily, times have changed.”
Ms Barfield said while conversations around food waste from an individual standpoint were positive, more change was still needed.
“It is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.
“I think there is a collective understand that this is a pressing issue.
“I think we are at a critical junction.”
Ms Barfield said initiatives such as putting imperfect fruit and vegetables back into the market were positive steps forward, but it was essential to stop as much waste as possible ending up in landfill to reduce the amount of toxic methane seeping into the air.
“Whatever you do with it, don’t put food in your landfill bin,” she said.
Ms Barfield said she was honoured to receive the recognition for her work, but said it was a team effort.
“I share this award with everybody who’s worked with me,” she said.
“I am hopeful for the future.”
Ms Barfield said Australia and Yarraville had been a welcoming and open home for her.
“I’m proud to call Australia home,” she said.
“I feel like the luckiest person in the world to live in this community.”
Details: secondbite.org or yumefood.com.au
