Deep Cycle Fruit & Veg

17th June 2014

It goes like clockwork: around this time of year I get a phone call from Paul Haar to let me know his feijoas are finished for the season, a week later Ian Cuming calls to say his kiwifruit is ready to go. Paul and I say our goodbyes till next April and later when I talk to Ian for the first time in 9 months he’ll fill me in on family news, how his season is going and the weather, always the weather – it means everything. It’s the same cycle every season and it’s rhythm is comforting. And although each season is different we have the same conversations every year. We’ll set a price that works for both parties, figure out how we can help move more fruit at the peak of the season and wonder if the New Zealand kiwifruit will have the usual effect of undercutting local prices. And in a few months Ian will make the call to say his coolroom is empty again and it’ll be time to say goodbye and start talking asparagus with Morrie. Lovely – just like slow clockwork.

The Social Enterprise Dividend

Hassan (pictured in high-viz) works as a leading hand on the Fair Food packing floor. This month he’s in Egypt to visit his wife and four year old son for the first time in three years. Hussan was granted asylum in Australia after escaping the civil war in Somalia. Ever since he has been patiently working through the process to bring his family here to restart their lives. Hussan has an agricultural degree and like so many new migrants is prepared to take an entry level job to establish himself and support his family. Some people would see giving an asylum seeker a job as an act of charity but for Fair Food it’s just been a smart business decision; Hussan, like many other of our workers who have come to Australia as asylum seekers, is motivated, hard working and after seeing the worst the world can dish out doesn’t sweat the small stuff. For Fair Food he is a great person and a key worker and seeing him succeed in building a life in Australia and now reconnecting with his family is one of the dividends of supporting a social enterprise.

Have a great week

Chris