Our Community

We are concerned about the growing number of Western Australians with health issues. To help tackle this problem we introduced the Live Life Well program, which aims to improve the health and wellbeing of all Western Australians.

Last year the program supported a number of organisations and events that encouraged people to be both physically active and live healthier lives. As part of this we were once again the major sponsor of the HBF City to Surf this year, which is the largest community sporting event in WA. In 2007 more than 29,000 people pounded the pavement for the charity event, which included 500 members of the HBF Family Team and a record 59 schools (including comprising more than 1300 participants), taking part participating in the HBF Challenge to Schools.

The HBF Telethon Toddle also forms part of the Live Life Well program and this year exceeded all expectations with more than 1200 children taking part – almost double the previous year – and raised more than $75,000 for Telethon. Held each April at Burswood Parklands, more than 50 HBF employees volunteered their time to help make the event a great success. We also continued our support of the Tee-ball Association of Western Australia and Western Australian School Canteen Association.

The HBF Family Doctor Duncan Jefferson provided health advice throughout the year via HBF’s website, HBF member magazines, media interviews and his weekly talkback segment on 6PR.

To gain a greater understanding of the health of our community, HBF and The West Australian newspaper joined forces to run two community health and wellbeing surveys during the year. The results showed that while most Western Australians rate having a fit and healthy lifestyle as the most important priority in their life, their poor habits are revealing otherwise. They also revealed we need to strike a greater balance between work and leisure and make a greater long term commitment to improve our health.

Employee giving

HBF employees continued to give generously to the community over the past year to help make a difference to those in need. Our workplace giving program is one of the simplest yet most effective ways of supporting our community and making a difference to those in need. It involves employees donating a small contribution each pay to a program administered by United Way.

Each year employees nominate which charities and causes they wish to support and the process is coordinated by a dedicated group of employees, known as HBF Angels. Last year HBF’s employees raised more than $48,900 for Amaroo Village and Alzheimers WA through the payroll deductions program and fundraising events organised.

In the past 11 years our workplace giving program has raised more than $330,000 to local charities. Over the same period, HBF employees, suppliers and members have raised more than $1.4 million for charities.

Looking to our future

HBF is examining how it can be more environmentally friendly and has established a working group, which is focussing on ways to reduce the organisation’s carbon emissions and encourage employees to adopt ways that can help make a difference to the world in which we live.