Ronni
Kahn

Speaker Profile

Ronni Kahn is the founding director of OzHarvest, a non-denominational, not for profit organisation that rescues surplus food from restaurants, retailer, food outlets and corporate kitchens across Sydney, Canberra, Wollongong, Newcastle and
Adelaide to feed communities at risk.

In 2010 Ronni Kahn was named Australia's Local Hero as part of the Australian of the Year Awards announced at Parliament House, Canberra. Ronni has been a NSW Australia Day Ambassador for three years and was a finalist in two categories of Telstra Business Women's Awards 2008. Ronni was a recipient of the Vodafone World of Difference Programme in 2009.

Ronni Kahn grew up in South Africa and moved to Israel where she brought up her family. She arrived in Australia as an immigrant from Israel in 1988.

Ronni set out to make a difference in this world - to create an organisation with sound business ethics that would positively impact society. Her previous experience in the hospitality industry led her to question where all the excess food went that was the natural fall out in the food and beverage industry. When she saw that no organisation in Sydney was collecting perfectly edible excess food and delivering it to people in need on a regular and professional basis, she created OzHarvest, which does just that. Today, OzHarvest collects over five tonnes of food a day, and delivers the equivalent of 15,000 meals a day from more than 900 food donors throughout Australia, freeing up valuable resources for charities to spend on education and rehabilitative programs. Over nine million meals have been rescued and redistributed since Ronni began her quest in 2004.

Travels from New South Wales