One of the nation’s leading dairy manufacturers has joined forces with Shepparton Foodshare in a three-year deal to help ensure food security for those struggling financially.
Noumi Limited produces a range of dairy and non-dairy milk products Australia-wide and has committed thousands of litres of dairy milk products to support Goulburn Valley communities in need.
Noumi chief executive officer Michael Perich said the fresh dairy products being donated came from local farms.
“It’s then manufactured by our 230 staff that we have here at Shepparton,” Mr Perich said.
“And it absolutely gives us a buzz to see how this gets into the mouths of those in need in the community, especially for the kids that are less fortunate — how do they get the nutrition in their food?”
Shepparton Foodshare chair Jeremy Rensford praised Mr Perich for caring for the local community and said the deal was “more than tokenism”.
“This is making a real impact on the ground for those that need it the most,” Mr Rensford said.
“This shouldn't be at odds with making a profit and I commend you and your team for being able to do both — we certainly are grateful.”
Noumi’s Shepparton dairy milk processing facility processes more than 250 million litres of milk each year supplied from about 40 local dairy farms.
The Perich family has its own 2000-strong dairy herd.
Noumi’s 2024 net revenue from its milk-based dairy products was $412 million and $177.6 million from its plant-based milks.
The family also grows crops, which Mr Perich said were affected by recent weather events.
“A little bit of weather came through, which — especially for the harvest — is throwing a spanner in the works,” Mr Perich said.
“But overall the conditions are looking good.”
Mr Perich said the global demand for Australian dairy was starting to lift.
“Which is good for dairy overall.
“A little bit sort-of slow in what’s happening to the Australian market yet; there’s still a lot of challenges there with managing cost-of-living and how the consumers then purchase these products.”
Mr Perich said import tariffs proposed by the incoming Trump administration were something Australia needed to be “careful’’ with to take any advantage.
“People are still looking for these food products, especially in those markets, so I think it's important we focus on what we can control there,” he said.
“Dairy’s always been a product that some markets through South-East Asia and the greater Asian market are always looking for.
“How do we get a bigger share of that?”
Students from Gowrie Street Primary School were at the announcementon Wednesday, December 11, having completed their first year of a full-time lunch program which relies on donated food.
Mr Rensford said people wanted to know that outlets such as Foodshare were having an impact.
“Everybody here wants to make sure we’re having a human connection, and I’m here to tell you with authority that we actually are,” he said.
“I feel like a proud grandfather when I visit that school; they have a roster where the students actually cook their meals so that every student is able to come to school and eat well.
“It wasn't that long ago that some of them, or perhaps a lot of them, weren't doing that and now they are.
“That’s an example of the type of impact this has.”
The school’s lunch program coordinator Chelsea Smith said the school provided children with breakfast, lunch and morning tea.
“It keeps children’s nutrition at the forefront,” Ms Smith said.
“There is a lot of food insecurity in the local area so we feed over 200 kids at no cost to families at all.”
Foodshare provides most of the food for the program, with Ms Smith coordinating a team of cooks each morning.
The cuisine from the new industrial kitchen includes sushi, chicken pie and taco bowls, and the school also provides an ongoing fruit bowl for ‘grazing’ during the day.
Mr Rensford said Foodshare was not yet celebrating “too hard’’ and hoped the new deal with Noumi would inspire other large food producers to donate.
“We still don’t get enough in, compared to what has been required of us to push out,” he said.
“And that is something that we’re completely ill at ease with.
“I've been known to say ‘you know what, we wish our organisation was irrelevant, we wish that our community was fed well enough, that they didn’t need us’, but sadly in the current season, and perhaps in the next few years at least, it’s very unlikely; so we've got to do the very best that we can.
“As we do get bigger, we rely on these more forward-looking partners.
“And we are getting bigger, we don’t want to get bigger, but we've got no choice.”