Katy Barfield OAMFounder

Australia - Greater Melbourne Area

My obsession with food waste prevention began when I saw the amount of food waste the kitchen was producing when I owned a little bar in Melbourne 20 odd years ago. I've campaigned to eliminate food waste ever since, with my role as the former founding CEO of food rescue organisation SecondBite, leading me to create Yume, a business-to-business tech solution.

Our vision for Yume as a scalable solution, has seen the technology continuously evolve since it's inception in 2016, with some of the biggest food manufacturers in Australia - Unilever, Mars Food, General Mills and other leading FMCG manufacturers - now using Yume to sell and donate their surplus food.

This year I was honoured to receive a Medal of the Order of Australia and have also been recognised by the Banksia Sustainability Award (2020), Australian Financial Review Women of Influence for Business & Entrepreneur Award (2019), Victorian Premier’s Sustainability Award (2018) and Telstra Victorian Business Women’s For Purpose and Social Enterprise Award (2017).My obsession with food waste prevention began when I saw the amount of food waste the kitchen was producing when I owned a little bar in Melbourne 20 odd years ago. I've campaigned to eliminate food waste ever since, with my role as the former founding CEO of food rescue organisation SecondBite, leading me to create Yume, a business-to-business tech solution. Our vision for Yume as a scalable solution, has seen the technology continuously evolve since it's inception in 2016, with some of the biggest food manufacturers in Australia - Unilever, Mars Food, General Mills and other leading FMCG manufacturers - now using Yume to sell and donate their surplus food. This year I was honoured to receive a Medal of the Order of Australia and have also been recognised by the Banksia Sustainability Award (2020), Australian Financial Review Women of Influence for Business & Entrepreneur Award (2019), Victorian Premier’s Sustainability Award (2018) and Telstra Victorian Business Women’s For Purpose and Social Enterprise Award (2017).
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