Our Story: From One Bag of Rice to a Lifeline for Hundreds

Cambodian Rice Run (CRR) isn’t your typical charity. We’re bold, cheeky, and 100% obsessed with helping families in Cambodia thrive.

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It all started in 2017 when Marita and Todd decided donating from afar just wasn’t enough—they wanted boots on the ground, hands in the rice, and hearts all in. Marita has been exploring Cambodia since 2006 and introduced Todd in 2015. After being introduced to Tammy, founder of ABCs and Rice, they teamed up for a food relief drop—and the first “Rice Run” delivered 194 bags of rice, smashing the original goal of 100!

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Fast forward to 2019: Marita met Barb, a fellow adventurer, and they started fundraising for a trip in May 2020. Then COVID-19 hit. Trips cancelled? Sure. Mission stopped? Never. With funds raised, CRR pivoted to monthly food relief programs. By mid-2020, with a dream to do even more, Marita’s cousin Jane, our Fundraising Queen, joined—making CRR official by October 2020.

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Today, CRR is a fully registered Australian charity with ACNC and DGR status, run by a passionate volunteer board and local partners on the ground. We support vulnerable families with food, education, medical care, and crisis relief, focusing on elderly and at-risk households.

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What We Do

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• Kid Care Medical Clinic – healthcare for over 200 kids at ABCs and Rice.

• Lunches With Love & Reverse Tuition – school-based nutrition programs keeping kids full, happy, and ready to learn.

• Emergency Relief & Family Sponsorships – helping elderly and vulnerable households weather tough times.

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100% of donations to a project go directly to families, with overheads covered by our community fundraisers—think High Teas, raffles, and lots of fun!

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Meet the Current Team

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• Marita – Director & Kid Care/Reverse Tuition Coordinator. Fun fact: She’s eaten duck embryo, red ants, crickets, tarantulas, chicken feet… and loved most of it!

• Todd – Chairperson & logistics muscle. Fun fact: Black belt in Tae Kwon Do, can lift more rice than anyone else on the team, looks tough… but secretly cries at Disney movies.

• Jane – Fundraising Queen, Treasurer & Family Sponsorship Coordinator. Fun fact: Biggest heart of us all, a party animal despite her serious exterior, loves a good foot massage while sipping frozen margaritas, and has been known to break out into random dances in the streets of Siem Reap! 💃🍹

• Piset - is the soul of Cambodian Rice Run on the ground. He pours his love for his community and his family into everything he does — from coordinating house builds, food deliveries, and emergency support, to running his own school and leading our Lunches With Love program on top of his everyday work. His kindness, integrity, and quiet strength keep our programs running and our families supported. Fun fact: He once tried to take a “day off”… and still ended up delivering food, fixing a roof, teaching a class, and rescuing a chicken. Resting is not in his vocabulary — serving his community is.

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Our directors “put their money where their mouth is”—each holds a family sponsorship and regularly contributes from their own pockets to keep programs running.

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At CRR, we’re not just running rice—we’re running hope, opportunity, and a whole lot of laughs, one bag (and one smile) at a time.

Let’s Work Together