July 2010 [02.08.2010]

FareShare Australia: One Million Meals from Rescued Food
Grant: $25,000
www.fareshare.net.au
FareShare (formerly One Umbrella) provides free, tasty, nutritious meals to the hungry and the homeless using donated food not needed by markets, caterers, and retailers around Melbourne. This project aimed to recruit new suppliers of unwanted food so as to increase the number of meals prepared by FareShare and distributed to over 100 charities. The outcome was successful with Woolworths, Heinz, SPC Ardmona and Ward Mackenzie all coming on board as donors to FareShare. Production of meals tripled from 15,000 to 45,000 meals per month. FareShare was able to increase the diversity and nutritional value of meals. In addition to supplying more meals, they were also able to supply the charities with more fresh produce as well.

Florey Neurosciences Institutes: Pilot project: Improving Health Outcomes in Stroke Patients – A shared team approach between nurses and doctors
Grant: $20,000
www.florey.edu.au
Stroke is the second most common cause of death and a major disability in the community. This trial sought to test whether using Medicare-funded Chronic Disease Management (CDM) plans, along with nurse-assisted interventions aimed at long-term management, improved health outcomes in stroke patients. It aimed to change the way patients are cared for after their stroke in order to prevent second and subsequent strokes, and to improve the quality of life. The researchers gained essential insights from the trial enabling them to successfully apply for a much larger grant of nearly $1.7m from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for a much larger multicentre resarch study over a five year period.