Rebecca Fox talks to FoodShare's Deborah Manning.
In April, FoodShare celebrated delivering its one millionth meal equivalent. This month, it hit 1.3 million equivalent meals.
"That is how fast it is growing. It's a very exciting time,'' Deborah Manning says.
Manning established FoodShare in 2012 to redistribute "waste food'' from commercial businesses to those in the community who need it, thereby preventing it going into the landfill.
There are plenty of eye-opening statistics from the work they do: in her first month of business, she delivered 1000 equivalent meals; last month, they delivered 60,000.
The concept received a huge boost recently when a change to the Food Act removed liability from donors for food they passed along, as long as it was fit for human consumption when they did.
"That changed the way food businesses approached donating food.''
Half the food donated is fresh produce, followed by bread, then meat and dairy.
It comes from supermarkets, cafes, restaurants, caterers and university halls of residence.
The concept has been expanded to Auckland and, all up, there are about 100 donors and 130 charities that benefit.
Even after five years in business, Manning is still surprised by the quality of food that arrives at FoodShare.
"It's not A grade but might have a blemish or bruise; nothing that can't be cut out.''
As many recipients do not know what to do with the produce they receive, FoodShare and the University of Otago has developed resource cards explaining to people what the product is and how to store and cook it.
Workshops teaching people how to cook waste food and healthy recipes using basic produce and pantry items are also planned.
Much of the work is made possible by hundreds of volunteers, who together have contributed 4000 hours of labour, Manning says.
FoodShare statistics
• 1.3 million equivalent meals provided to the Dunedin community
• 419 million tonnes diverted from the landfill
• Enough energy saved to power 110 homes a year
• Enough water saved to fill 18 Olympic swimming pools
• More than 45,000 meals a month delivered
