World Youth Day Sydney (WYD08) is supporting Australian food producers by putting in large orders to feed the masses during the July event.

With up to 125,000 international visitors from over 170 nations expected, organisers want to ensure they all have some dinky-di Australian food.

Approximately 25 million items have already been ordered. These will be used to serve breakfast at more than 400 accommodation venues, lunch at 250 catechesis sites and evening meals in the central city.

In total, 3.5 million meals will be served during the entire event, said Director of Pilgrim Services, Geoff Morris.

"World Youth Day will be a fantastic event, and my team has the very special challenge of planning to feed the largest mobilisation of young people in Australia's history," Mr Morris said.

"We want to provide pilgrims with 'a good feed' and a little bit of an Australian taste. We have tried to do that by including some of our more iconic items such as Tim Tams, Weet-Bix crunch, vegemite, lamingtons and good old baked beans!"

Cadbury will provide 425,000 chocolate bars, produced at the Claremont plant in Tasmania, he said.

Mrs Macs has supplied over 200,000 traditional 'Big Aussie Beef Pies' for the event. Once a small operation in Perth, Mrs Macs now employs over 450 people and distributes throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Sanitarium will supply more than 300,000 servings of Weet-Bix crunch. The company buys 40,000 tonnes of traditional wheat grain for Weet-Bix crunch and its other cereals from Australian farmers each year. About 30,000 tonnes of wheat comes from south-west NSW alone.

The Aussie food theme will continue with a unique, never before attempted event at previous World Youth Days - a massive barbeque.

Dubbed the 'WYD Big Aussie BBQ', the iconic Aussie barbeque will be taken to new heights on Wednesday 16 July when over 120,000 pilgrims are expected to take part in around 200 locations.

"There's no better way to welcome young people to our country than to host a traditional BBQ," said Mr Morris.

Rotary Australia has offered its support to help host the WYD Big Aussie BBQ, together with parishes and Church community groups across greater Sydney.

"As a member of Rotary International in Australia, I'm delighted that we have almost 80 Rotary Clubs from around Sydney involved in the WYD Big Aussie BBQ," said Glenn Wran, District Governor Nominee, Rotary Australia.

"The WYD Big Aussie BBQ is a perfect example of how Rotary in Australia can be put into action to bring some happiness to young people from all around the globe."

Tip Top will supply over 220,000 slices of bread for the WYD Big Aussie BBQ.

"Where possible, we have ordered food items with minimal or recyclable packaging to reduce the amount of waste," Mr Morris said.

A list of the vast quantities of food being ordered is provided below.

Sydney will host the XXIII World Youth Day from 15 to 20 July. It is expected to draw 125,000 international visitors and 60,000 from outside Sydney to the Harbour city for six days of religious and cultural activities.

A Catholic event, open to all, it will also mark the first visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to Australia.

Only 37 days to go to WYD08!

WYD08 Food Supplies for 15-20 July 2008