Mission & Justice

Jennifer Hewett; 10/7/08

Bob Hannah edges his refrigerated van into a tiny parking spot in a back lane of Sydney’s Double Bay behind the crowded cafes and expensive dress shops. He disappears for a few minutes to return with two bags of raw sausages from T&R Butchers. “There’s 11kg today,” he says as he weighs them on the scales and marks them off in his log book. “Mission Australia will like those.” Ronni Kahn, left, and Julie Claridge of OzHarvest collate donated goods in Sydney. Picture: Amos Aikman. They will be particularly happy if they are combined with the container of mash that Hannah has just picked up from Harry’s Cafe de Wheels at Woolloomooloo. Farther up the road, he stops off at the Royal Motor Yacht Club at Point Piper. Unlike his regular calls at the butcher’s - along with several other bakers, delicatessens and greengrocers, even a pub, along his morning route - the yacht club is only an occasional addition to the schedule. But the club had a special buffet spread the previous evening. By the next morning, the kitchen has packaged up containers of what is left over: avocado salads, pasta dishes, sliced beef and berry tarts. All up, they amount to 17kg of goodies, as the chef describes them, to be collected.

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6/5/08

The UN agency that provides food for Palestinian refugees says it can continue to distribute aid in the Gaza Strip for another 20 days having announced that it was once again on the verge of having to suspend deliveries. The statement from the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on Monday said a delivery of fuel would allow them to continue. The Israeli blockade of Gaza has caused low supplies of fuel and basic goods for the 1.5 million inhabitants. John Ging, the agency director, said: “Thankfully this afternoon there is a supply of fuel coming in for us, so we won’t now have to stop our operations for the second time in 10 days. “The amounts that are coming in will keep us going for about 20 days.”

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David Blair & Ambrose Evans-Pritchard; 15/4/08

From the villages of Bangladesh to the slums of Haiti, millions of the world’s poorest people have been cast into even greater penury by sharply rising food prices. At a stroke, this swift and devastating change in the global economy - which has gone almost unnoticed in the rich world - has inflicted immense suffering.Rice is the staple diet in these countries and its price has doubled in a year. If you happen to live in Dakar or Port-au-Prince, this effectively means your already meagre standard of living has suddenly been cut in half. Riots and demonstrations have been the result in these countries and more than a dozen others in the past month.

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