Full Name
Jenn Heggarty
Job Title
State Manager
Organisation
OzHarvest Tasmania
Speaker Bio
Jenn Heggarty is the founding State Manager of OzHarvest Tasmania, and everything she has built here, she has built with others.
Before starting OzHarvest, Jenn was lucky enough to have roles in other NPF organisations while also working in elite sport. It was in sport that she first witnessed what genuine collaboration looks like under pressure. The way high-performing teams are built not just on star players, but on the relentless pursuit of marginal gains. The right physiotherapist. The perfect training partner. The coach who sees what others miss, the volunteers and committees that keep everything operating around the team. In elite sport, the difference between winning and losing often comes down to who you surround yourself with and whether you are humble enough to know what you can't do alone.
Jenn brought that mindset to OzHarvest Tasmania, and it became the framework of operations.
In less than two years, Jenn has grown OzHarvest Tasmania from a blank page to a seven-person team running five-day-per-week food rescue across two cities. The impact is real and measurable: over 500,000 kilograms of food rescued, more than one million meals delivered, 48 charity agencies supported, and close to 10,000 students engaged through the FEAST education program.
But what makes Jenn's story worth telling is how she got there. Faced with the choice between waiting for funding and infrastructure, or getting food to people who needed it now, Jenn flipped the business plan: impact first, bricks and mortar can wait. She mapped the ecosystem around her: identifying the partners, corporates, and organisations who could each provide their own one percent improvement. Working alongside Tasmania's major food rescue organisations rather than in competition with them and connecting with corporate partners who shared both her values and her sense of urgency, she commenced operations years ahead of schedule.
Not because the conditions were perfect. Because the need was real, the right people said yes, and she just asked.
Jenn believes that the most powerful decision any for-purpose organisation can make is to stop trying to do it alone.
Her keynote is an honest, energising, and completely unjaded account of building something meaningful from very little, and the irreplaceable power of showing up together.
Because better together isn't just a theme. It's the backbone of every organisation that truly makes a difference.
Before starting OzHarvest, Jenn was lucky enough to have roles in other NPF organisations while also working in elite sport. It was in sport that she first witnessed what genuine collaboration looks like under pressure. The way high-performing teams are built not just on star players, but on the relentless pursuit of marginal gains. The right physiotherapist. The perfect training partner. The coach who sees what others miss, the volunteers and committees that keep everything operating around the team. In elite sport, the difference between winning and losing often comes down to who you surround yourself with and whether you are humble enough to know what you can't do alone.
Jenn brought that mindset to OzHarvest Tasmania, and it became the framework of operations.
In less than two years, Jenn has grown OzHarvest Tasmania from a blank page to a seven-person team running five-day-per-week food rescue across two cities. The impact is real and measurable: over 500,000 kilograms of food rescued, more than one million meals delivered, 48 charity agencies supported, and close to 10,000 students engaged through the FEAST education program.
But what makes Jenn's story worth telling is how she got there. Faced with the choice between waiting for funding and infrastructure, or getting food to people who needed it now, Jenn flipped the business plan: impact first, bricks and mortar can wait. She mapped the ecosystem around her: identifying the partners, corporates, and organisations who could each provide their own one percent improvement. Working alongside Tasmania's major food rescue organisations rather than in competition with them and connecting with corporate partners who shared both her values and her sense of urgency, she commenced operations years ahead of schedule.
Not because the conditions were perfect. Because the need was real, the right people said yes, and she just asked.
Jenn believes that the most powerful decision any for-purpose organisation can make is to stop trying to do it alone.
Her keynote is an honest, energising, and completely unjaded account of building something meaningful from very little, and the irreplaceable power of showing up together.
Because better together isn't just a theme. It's the backbone of every organisation that truly makes a difference.
Speaking At
