FoodShare chief executive and founder Deborah Manning said, in the year since it began, the charity had saved more than 14,000kg of food from being thrown away by businesses.
FoodShare took donated items of perishable and prepared foods and drinks from businesses, then sorted, stored and redistributed them to organisations which fed the hungry, including the Salvation Army and the Dunedin Night Shelter Trust. Some of the larger organisations to sign on included Otago University, Otago Polytechnic and Fishers Original Foods.
She had been surprised at how quickly the organisation had grown, but was always confident of the concept, which was ''hard to argue with''.
''I think everybody recognises that there is a need for healthy nutritious food for the members of community that don't have it in their diet,'' she said.
She believed the organisation could grow much larger, and the concept could spread to other parts of New Zealand.
This was where Otago University MBA student Nick Bell, who began helping with the organisation in January, came in.
Mr Bell was now working full time, and without pay, to develop a growth strategy for the organisation, as part of his final MBA thesis.
A key part of developing a growth strategy involved visiting successful food rescue organisations in New Zealand and Australia and using lessons they had learnt to help FoodShare grow, he said.
The nine-day research trip was funded in part by the Dunedin City Council, which was keen for the organisation to grow because it saved food from going to landfills, which cost ratepayers money.
He saw an opportunity for FoodShare to become a model taken up by people in other regions,
with a website used to link volunteers and businesses who wanted to give food or their time.
Mr Bell said he was attracted to food rescue because it was ''such a strong concept''.
