Mannum entrepreneur Kelly Johnson has won the 2026 Women in Innovation Sustainability Award, recognised for turning surplus farm produce into shelf-stable meals and new income streams for growers.
The Woodlane Pantry founder recently took out the BHP-sponsored award for rescuing imperfect and excess fruit and vegetables from farms, orchards and backyards across South Australia, including the Murraylands, Barossa, Adelaide Hills and Gawler River.
Kelly and her small team dehydrates produce into single-serve curries, soups and risottos designed for travellers, older Australians and busy households.
To date, the business has saved more than 187 tonnes of food from landfill, produced 87,000 meals and returned over $1 million to local farmers.
“We have a real food problem, with 7.6 million tonnes of food going to waste in Australia every year and people going hungry? Outrageous!” Kelly said.
“We need to do something about it and I hope this shines a light on that.”
Kelly says the win gives Woodlane Pantry a bigger platform to partner with more growers and expand its product range. An emerging arm of the business also shares food-processing expertise with farmers, helping them turn their own surplus crops into branded products.
“Sustainability needs to be about more than reducing waste,” she said. “It needs to create value and opportunities for the people behind Australia’s food production.”
The business began in 2019 as Woodlane Orchard after Kelly stepped in to help a farming friend find a market for surplus peaches. It later expanded to include hiking meal brand SPhiker, before both operations merged under the Woodlane Pantry banner earlier this year. The business now operates out of a shopfront at Shop 2, 84 Randell Street, Mannum.
The trophy caps off a standout run of recognition for Kelly, who was named South Australia’s 2025 AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award winner and won a 2024 SA Premier’s Food and Beverage Industry Award. She was also named a 2026 finalist in the Australian Agritech Awards, Westpac Female Founder Awards and SkyCity Woman of the Year Awards.
