Ronaldine and Simone

Ronaldine is passionate about improving the agriculture and food sector in Vanuatu. She hopes that her studies in Food Technology and Nutrition, coupled with her experience as a student leader and ambassador, will help her to educate young people in Vanuatu about the issue of food security, and how they can lead positive change in this area.

On completion of her studies, Ronaldine will focus on solutions to improve food security, such as reducing food wastage, encouraging subsistence farming and identifying new food products. She hopes her participation in the Women’s Leadership Initiative will prepare her for this work, improving her leadership skills and enabling her to communicate more effectively with stakeholders.

Simone is Co-founder and Director of SecondBite, a not-for-profit organisation that redistributes food to local charities around Australia. Widely regarded as the most efficient and only genuinely national food rescue organisation in Australia, SecondBite rescues food that would ordinarily end up in landfill.

Simone is passionate about stopping food waste, both as a means to alleviate hunger and to reduce the larger environmental food waste problem. In 2018, she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship Award for her work, and will be embarking on a study tour of the UK, Ireland, France, Denmark, the USA and Canada to examine best practices in food rescue and distribution.

Simone has received extensive recognition for her work in combatting food waste. She was named Melbournian of the Year in 2018, a Member of the Order of Australia in 2017, and included on the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2016.