Queen Camilla visited Refettorio OzHarvest Sydney, a collaborative social impact project between OzHarvest, Australia’s leading food rescue organisation, and Food for Soul, an Italian-founded initiative. The Queen was greeted by OzHarvest’s founder, Ronni Kahn, who showed her around the community hub. Her Majesty, who is Patron of UKHarvest, also met with its founder and volunteers during the visit.
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00:00I just think I'd like to present the Chair of this House Board, Mr Cullen.
00:08And I think there's some other person as well, Mr James.
00:12It's lovely to see you.
00:14Ah, you're a friend of mine.
00:16I'm very impressed as well.
00:17Ah, you also have a message.
00:19Make sure you see my phone.
00:21We've been texting for the last few days.
00:23Good, so I think he's coming out to you.
00:25Yeah, he's definitely coming out to you.
00:27Lovely sign.
00:29I'm the Chair of the House Board, Mr Cullen.
00:32Hello.
00:34Lovely to meet you.
00:35Lovely to meet you.
00:36Very nice to meet you.
00:37Thank you so much.
00:38I would just like to...
00:40So I just want to acknowledge that we meet here today on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.
00:46And I have my deepest respect to all First Nations people.
00:51And we are so honoured to welcome you here today in this space, Refettorio House House.
00:58I wanted to share just a few little details about this space.
01:02Because I think you know Mr Massimo Bottura.
01:06And this Refettorio has been created to provide free lunch to vulnerable, beautiful people.
01:14But the story of this space is that one of my philanthropist friends,
01:19when she heard that I had this idea to open a restaurant,
01:24gave us this space.
01:27She liked it and she said, now it's yours.
01:30So I want you to know that every single thing in this space has been their space.
01:35Our guests here today are philanthropists, business people,
01:40who all are phenomenal supporters of us.
01:44I think you did.
01:45Would you like me to do another thing for you?
01:48No, I think that's fine.
01:53And I'd like to introduce you to our extraordinary chefs,
01:57which I will do in a minute.
02:00There we are.
02:02So I'd like to introduce you to our head chef.
02:06Oh no, this is easy. It's okay. Very easy.
02:09You're not going to make me cook, are you?
02:10No, definitely not.
02:11These are all from our Oz Harvest garden.
02:13And our lovely volunteers grow them all.
02:15These are all edible flowers.
02:16So we just use them to pick flowers.
02:19That's what it says.
02:23And then you just decorate.
02:26You can have the big ones, they're the best ones anyway.
02:29They taste better.
02:32Better flavour, more colour.
02:34Yeah, so we can use them.
02:35You can stick them in things to make drinks.
02:37Or you can just use them for beautiful decorations.
02:40Put them into herbs.
02:41So what's a favourite?
02:43We just try and make beautiful, delicious food.
02:45What's on the menu today, James?
02:47What do we have on the menu?
02:48Oh, we've got these beautiful heirloom tomatoes.
02:51Do you see yellow ones, orange ones, red ones?
02:54We just make a beautiful salad with yummy spice like rice.
02:59We had excess or had things that I needed to move on or renew.
03:10Well, it's different every week.
03:12Go below me if you want.
03:14Go below you?
03:15If you want, you need a quick camera underneath.
03:20I want to touch it.
03:25Beautiful, isn't it?
03:27And these are all from our garden.
03:28We have an Osmond style down the hill.
03:31And there's a lot of lucky diamonds.
03:34Yeah, really lucky diamonds.
03:36The flowers will be on your plate as well, upstairs.
03:39You'll see them in action.
03:46I'm sorry.
03:50No, that's perfect.
03:54Thank you so much.
03:55Thank you so much.
03:56Quickly.
04:03Thank you very much, Mel.
04:34These are guests of ours who come during the week for lunch.
04:39And they were so thrilled to be invited to join us for lunch.
04:45These are regular, regular guests of ours.
04:48Hello. Nice to see you.
05:00Hello. Nice to see you.
05:05Can you tell me what you eat?
05:09Well, I don't eat anything.
05:11This is beautiful.
05:16I will tell you that this is crispy potato hash with fennel, Persian feta, green schuch, heirloom tomatoes and house pickles.
05:26And all of this has been rescued.
05:29So it would have come from surplus that might have been given to us from a supermarket or from a manufacturer or a producer.
05:40And then our chefs, the beautiful people you met downstairs, turned it into this exquisite.
05:49And I'm drawing your attention to this.
05:51This is life-changing lemonade.
05:55We have benches where we take ugly lemons that would otherwise be discarded and convert them into lemonade, which is a delicious drink.
06:10Yes, and the misshapen things that we reject in the supermarket.
06:16Yes, we deliver one and a half million meals a week from food that would otherwise be thrown away.
06:25So how often do you come?
06:28Once a week.
06:31I bet you look forward to it.
06:33Every two weeks.
06:35Normally we have... I'm going to read you what today's menu is.
06:40Because today this is just tea.
06:43But lunch today, this is the first course of lunch today.
06:48And then there's a chickpea and lentil dish, protein.
06:52So it's really important to make sure that our guests get nourishing food.
06:57Related to the newspaper, the perpetrators get punished.
07:01That's another option.
07:03Or number three, we can run and find a jug, a bucket.
07:08And if we cannot find a bucket, we should try and find a jug.
07:12And if we cannot find a jug, we should find a teaspoon.
07:16Because although a teaspoon is tiny, there are millions of us.
07:21And every single one of us has a teaspoon.
07:24So I invite everyone to join the order.
07:29Wear a teaspoon on your shoulder.
07:34Exactly, I wear a teaspoon.
07:42A little teaspoon, but somebody tied it up.
07:45A little teaspoon brooch.
07:49I don't know if you can see, but there's a little crown at the end.
07:55Right there.
08:03The purpose of the teaspoon is to remind us of random acts of goodness.
08:08Of all of the things that we do every day to make a difference for people.
08:13Which is why I felt you absolutely are the most prestigious member of the order of the teaspoon.
08:21Because your life is devoted to service and to giving back.
08:26And all of our people here are members of the order of the teaspoon.
08:32Well I'm very honoured to join you.
08:34I feel it's a very good order to get back to work.
08:38So do I. Thank you so much.