You might not think making apricot jam or roasting coffee beans has much to do with bushfire recovery.

Key points: Alice Mahar has rallied volunteers to help with the bushfire effort by rescuing food waste for later use

Alice Mahar has rallied volunteers to help with the bushfire effort by rescuing food waste for later use She became an Asia-Pacific leader after winning a scholarship with the Obama Foundation last year

She became an Asia-Pacific leader after winning a scholarship with the Obama Foundation last year Ms Mahar is now making kitchens from shipping containers to enable communities in Timor-Leste to preserve food

But in a repurposed shipping container in Oakleigh, in Melbourne's south-east, a group of women are stirring, bottling and chatting to support the cause.

"We can't go and fight fires, we can't go and rescue animals but what we can do is we can get as much food as possible, we can preserve it and we can donate it to those areas," said The Corner Store Network founder and director Alice Mahar.

She added that what people were asking for right now was monetary donations, so the food would be warehoused until it was wanted.

The fruit is excess produce from local trees that would have ended up rotting on lawns.

After a year of running the program, the group has saved 500 kilograms of fruit from landfill — preventing about 800kg of carbon being released into the atmosphere.

"On any given day, a million Australians are food insecure and we have 40 per cent of food wasted, so why not preserve food that's destined for landfill and make it available for people that are suffering from food insecurity," Ms Mahar said.

It is a community project with global ambitions and it has attracted the attention of former US president and probably the world's most famous community organiser, Barack Obama, who tweeted about the program in response to the bushfire crisis.

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So why did Obama tweet about it?

In December last year, Ms Mahar applied for a scholarship with the Obama Foundation.

She was accepted, and travelled to Malaysia, with her emissions offset, for a one-week leadership program.

"We met leaders from across the Asia-Pacific region, all working in different areas but so much of it coming back to the environment and climate change," she said.

The Corner Store Network does more than apricot jam — delicious though it is.

The group has repurposed two more shipping containers into commercial kitchens for communities in Timor-Leste, complete with all the equipment needed to preserve food, so communities can be self-sufficient throughout the year.

"It's about, how do we close that gap — preserve the food during the abundant season and have it there during the hungry season," she said.

The Corner Store organisation makes preserves like jam from fruit that would otherwise end up in landfill. ( Supplied )

The shipping containers cost about $60,000 each, and Ms Mahar hopes to expand the program to about 60 other communities across Timor-Leste.

"We call it a social enterprise in a box, it opens up almost like a flat pack, and then local women, primarily, are trained in how to preserve that food," she said, adding farmers were paid for their produce and the end product was then sold at a low-cost to community members.

Of course, because it is Melbourne, the story really begins with coffee.

Ms Mahar's work began in 2012 when she and her brother Jake started a business to benefit coffee farmers in Timor-Leste.

They invest in training and education for coffee farmers and the beans are roasted onsite at the cafe in Oakleigh.

They have also worked with local farmers to plant more than 120,000 trees under a community forestry program.

Ms Mahar began helping coffee farmers in Timor-Leste eight years ago with her brother's help. ( Supplied )

Which brings us back to the bushfires

Ms Mahar said it was easy to feel defeated by images of Australia's horror bushfire season, but her group preferred to act, with a plan to plant 1 million trees this year in response.

"Trees will continue to sequester carbon over their lifespan, and we need to get that carbon out of the atmosphere and back down into the soils, and that's why trees are so important," she said.

She said environmental action began with small steps in local communities.

"We can have a really strong community behind us, and say 'Hey, you guys might be affected in New South Wales or Victoria or Queensland, and we don't know you personally, but we will stand behind you and we will try and assist you'," she said.

"We can't fight fires, we can't save wildlife, but what we can do is preserve some food and have that available to you should you need it."