Zambrero Plate4Plate Day

Zambrero’s Plate4Plate Day: 430,000 meals for those in need

Sarah Stowe

Volunteers in five Australian cities gathered recently with a mega mission: to pack 430,000 meals to feed those in need.

Zambrero’s annual Plate4Plate Day is the most important date in the Mexican feel-good restaurant chain’s calendar.

Not only do hundreds of volunteers assemble to ensure meals are ready for distribution locally and overseas, it’s a double-donation day.

Zambrero’s Plate4Plate initiative means every burrito or meal that is sold in store, every day of the year, is matched with a meal donation overseas. On Plate4Plate day the donations are doubled, so hungry consumers can double-down on the good-feel impact of eating at Zambrero.    

Zambrero’s Plate4Plate Day volunteers

Plate4Plate was launched by Zambrero founder and philanthropist Dr Sam Prince. It has so far donated more than 84 million meals.

On 17 October, in Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth, colleagues, friends, franchisees and families joined the head office team to help with the mission of ending world hunger.

Franchisee Dan Hawley and his wife Kim travelled up to Sydney, bringing their three young daughters to the meal packing event.

The couple joined the Zam Fam eight years ago and now have four stores on the border of New South Wales and Victorian: Albury, Wangaratta and two in Wodonga.

“This is the reason why we do it, for days like today,” says Dan. “The difference between places like Zambrero and other organisations I believe is that we actually do what we say we will do. We physically pack the meals, we know that what we promise gets to people. 

“And it just proves that you can earn a living and at the same time help people. We strongly believe in this and always have.”

International and local meal distribution

Plate4Plate has a number of distribution partners, including Rise Against Hunger, and Love Mercy’s Cents for Seeds. Cents for Seeds is an agricultural microloan project in northern Uganda offering women the opportunity to thrive independently by earning an income, which then turns into food, education, and health care.

At a local level Plate4Plate partners with FoodBank to distribute meals to those in need. The charity provides food relief to more than one million Australians experiencing food insecurity.

Dan says the Plate4Plate initiative is a great talking point among customers in the restaurants.

“Our customers are aware of what we do, and we have great information displayed in-stores that start conversations. Someone will ask ‘What’s that plate counter on the wall for?’ and then they find out about this great charitable initiative, and there’s a feel-good factor for them.”

Zambrero’s energy-fuelled Plate4Plate Day brings together colleagues in team building days, and like-minded community-focused suppliers and associated brands.

Among those participating in Sydney were CommBank, Metcash and the Cronulla Sharks.

Team work to help end world hunger

Luke Grima, national retail operations manager for Liquor division at Metcash, joined team members to help assemble the meal packs which contain a nutritious combination of rice, soy, lentils and dehydrated vegetables, fortified with a vitamin mix.

“This is the second year that we have participated and there are two reasons why we do. The obvious reason we are here is to help those who require assistance, who are in need,” Luke said.

“It’s also a team-building exercise for us. We’re a national team, and our teams in WA, Queensland and the four of us here, are all participating. There’s a bit of friendly rivalry going on too!” he said.

Twelve suppliers including Sunrice, Asahi, Red Bull, HS Express, Impulse Trading, Meyer Food Co and PFD provided all the items needed, from ingredients to packaging materials, and the essential gloves, hair nets and energy-fuelling drinks for volunteers.

Half the volunteers assembled and weighed the meal packs. Another group was ready to seal the bags before the final group packed and labelled the large boxes for transport.

Some franchisees have experienced first hand the end journey of some of these meals. Every year high-performing franchisees get the opportunity to help out Zambrero’s partner charities deliver the volunteer-packed meals on a Vision trip.

This year’s trip to Kenya proved a powerful event for the Zambrero team that participated. It elicited comments such as “Being able to help out has been incredible” and “The impact that Zambrero and Rise Against Hunger have in these communities is transformational. The impact ripples into the communities and schools.”

Reaching communities experiencing food insecurity

Rise Against Hunger is the Plate4Plate international distribution partner, and CEO Rick Curran, travelled from the US to Sydney to see the Zambrero Plate4Plate Day in action.

“We serve communities around the world, and we could not reach those communities with nutrition and health and life-changing generational opportunities without partners like Zambrero,” he told the assembled volunteers.

“The partnership is two companies, but it’s not. The partnership is this room, the hearts and the heads and the hands that you come with today, to pour yourself out for people you haven’t even met, for the Phillippines, where 45 per cent of those people suffer from food insecurity. That means they do not have access or availability to nutritious food to live a healthy long lifestyle.”

The partnership between Zambrero and Rise Against Hunger is having a real impact, he pointed out.

“But 90,000 more after today in Sydney will have a better opportunity; 430,000 across the five locations, that is a life-changing opportunity.”