Mars Food & Nutrition Australia’s Dolmio brand has extended its partnership with Foodbank for the fourth consecutive year to combat food insecurity in Australia via the Collaborative Supply Program.

The program enables brands like Dolmio to consistently supply products to the food relief organisation, and is made possible through collaboration with supplier partners including Ingredient, Baker and Co Ingredients, Kikkoman, Visy Glass & Visy Board, and Toll, who donate their ingredients, packaging, or services.

The initiative will provide nearly one million meals to Foodbank in 2024 by supplying jars of Dolmio Bolognese and Carbonara sauce. Each jar of pasta sauce can feed up to four people.

In addition to Dolmio sauces, the Collaborative Supply Program will also include other Mars Food & Nutrition products such as MasterFoods Beef Stroganoff, Butter Chicken, and Honey Soy Garlic recipe bases. In total, the program aims to help Foodbank provide over three million meals in 2024.

According to the Foodbank Hunger Report 2023, 3.7 million households in Australia experienced food insecurity in the last 12 months. A staggering 77% of these households experienced food insecurity for the first time, and 94% tried to manage the cost of living by cutting their food and grocery spend.

CEO of Foodbank Australia, Brianna Casey, said: “This fantastic collaboration with DOLMIO ensures Foodbank warehouses across the country have a steady supply of delicious sauces for the many households doing it tough. Foodbank works with a ‘surprise chain’ – we rely on ad hoc donations and unpredictable food rescue opportunities – so it’s vital we have programs such as this one that enables us to have consistent and predictable supply of products like DOLMIO which can help people have access to a healthy and tasty meal.”

General Manager of Mars Food & Nutrition Australia, Bill Heague, said: “At DOLMIO, we are passionate about food. We believe that the joy of connecting over food should be something that everyone gets to enjoy. However, sadly there are an increasing number of Australian’s who are struggling. This means, at the very least, they are reducing the quality, variety, or desirability of their food and at worst, their eating patterns are disrupted. We know that we need to continue to partner with Foodbank to help.”

Heague also highlighted the success of the Foodbank Collaborative Supply Program, which started in 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic with an ambition to help provide 600,000 meals to Australians struggling with food insecurity.

“In 2022 we doubled that figure to 1.5 million meals, and in 2023 Mars Food & Nutrition delivered over 3.5 million meals to people in need across Australia. The Foodbank Collaborative Supply Program is at the heart of this work, with over 2.8 million meals delivered through this initiative. This year we aim to help deliver 3.2 million meals through our Foodbank partnership alone to help support its registered charities, 17 Food Hubs and Mobile Pantries across Australia,” said Heague.

Dolmio is also currently supporting Woolworths’ Foodbank cross-supplier activation, which is live in-stores and online until 12 March 2024.