Waste not, want not

Deborah Manning saw plenty of food going to waste from businesses, and people going hungry; she saw dumpster divers fishing good food out of skips behind supermarkets, which supermarkets didn't like, and food discarded from businesses going to landfill, with detrimental environmental effects.

Watching our waste lines

So, 18 months ago, the Dunedin lawyer decided there could be one solution for the two problems and started Food Share, a food rescue organisation that collects leftover but good food from businesses and redistributes it to food banks and other community food programmes.

Such programmes are growing in developed countries as people become aware of both food waste and poverty and hunger existing side by side.

For the first six months she did it all herself to make sure it was going to work, while developing the business models, systems and protocols.

Now, she and her team of mostly volunteers collect about two tonnes of good, edible food a week for redistribution back into the community, and that is just the tip of the iceberg, she says.

Some potential donors were worried about liability in case their donations caused illness, but there was no reason for them to be concerned because Food Share operated under robust conditions, there was no law against donating food, and when the Food Bill is enacted it will provide extra protection for donors, she said.

''We have to handle the food strictly so we have our own operating procedures. We have to maintain the chill chain. We have to keep it frozen to ensure the integrity of the food and to ensure the donors know their food will be taken care of.''

In the mornings they pick up yesterday's unsold food from bakeries, cafes and other donors, and later in the day they pick up from Countdown supermarkets.

Food Share has commercial chillers and sorting tables and gets the food out to food banks and other community programmes within 24 hours, Ms Manning says.

She suspects one of the reasons Food Share has been so successful is that consumers are fussy about what they will buy in the supermarket.

The look of vegetables has to be perfect and also people feel a best-before date is akin to a use-by date, but it is not.

''We get some food that has 24 hours on a use-by date. We turn that over very quickly, as that must be eaten by the end of that date.

"Or we get food that's close to its best-before date that's not going to be sold, so we can distribute that, and it's terrific because we have much longer to get that out into the community.''

Rescued food for redistribution includes meat, bread, baked goods, sandwiches still in their plastic wrap, yoghurts and a lot of fruit and vegetables.

''I'm talking vegetables you'd have in your fridge at home: aubergines, courgettes, peppers, melons, oranges and mangos, perhaps with a slight blemish that you can cut off, or vegetables going a little limp,'' she says.

They deliver to 16 food programmes from Mosgiel to Port Chalmers, including an afternoon care facility for children in Mosgiel.

The donated food, such as fruit and yoghurts, supplies a healthy afternoon snack that does not have to come out of the facility's limited budget.

Food banks can give a bag of fresh healthy food to clients as well as one of tinned and dried goods.

''I've had stories of clients breaking down because there's gluten-free bread that they can't afford and someone's donated it. And fathers who have been really tearful saying 'it's so nice to be able to give my children fruit and vegetables for lunch and dinner'.

''It's those sorts of stories that make you realise it's really worthwhile,'' Ms Manning says.

Lisa Wells, of Presbyterian Support, says they have received some 27,000 items from Food Share since it started, but they give out about 9000 items a month, 22% up on last year.

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