Food Rescue Northland turn 5 tonnes of excess food into 9020 meals

Imagine 9020 meals going to waste.

That is the number of meals created from 5 tonnes of food which may have otherwise ended up in Whangarei landfill but has instead fed people in need.

The group behind it is appropriately named Food Rescue Northland - Whakaora Kai Tai Tokerau - which is led by One Double Five Community House.

The group collects surplus food from Whangarei growers and retailers, like avocados with blemishes which can't be sold or food past its best before date but not past its use by date, and distributes them to community groups who support people in need in Northland.

Carol Peters, one of the project's organisers, said since the collection and distribution of food began on July 3, 5 tonnes of food - a lot of which would have otherwise "gone to the tip" - had been saved.

"On one side we've got food wasted and producing greenhouse gases, over the other side we've got hungry people. It's putting two together basically," she said.

The official launch of the initiative is on Wednesday but it started after Northland District Health Board commissioned a study to determine if a food rescue organisation was needed and if it would have a support. The result found Te Tai Tokerau had a similar amount of food going to waste as the rest of the country.

Provisional results from a Whangarei District Council waste audit - where a team spent a week going through an assortment of council rubbish bags and Northland Waste wheelie bins in April - found 46.9 per cent of rubbish in 6.12kg bags was food waste - which included vegetable peelings.

Food waste also made up 33.8 per cent of rubbish in 12.26kg bins, and 30.6 per cent of rubbish from 21.15kg bins.

The Northland DHB survey also found while food was going to waste, there were people considered "food insecure".

"They often didn't know from one week to another whether they were going to have enough food to feed their kids. They were also feeding their children a low amount of fruit and vegetables because people don't buy apples when they're poor," said Ms Peters.

In October last year Northland DHB approached One Double Five and asked if they would lead the initiative and they said yes.

When suppliers have excess food they contact Food Rescue Northland. That food is either picked up, or delivered to the warehouse on Woods Rd, and logged on the website.

Then, Northland organisations providing the food to people in need - which include Te Rarawa Anga Mua Trust, Ngati Hine Health Trust, Ngapuhi Iwi Social Services, schools and more - can go to the website and order what they want and either pick it up, or have it delivered.

Ms Peters said with bulk food waste producing carbon dioxide and methane, the environmental impact of saving food was huge.

"What they say is almost half of the world's food is thrown away one way or another. If you took all the discarded food from all over the world and turned it into a country it would be the third largest contributor of greenhouse gases."

Ms Peters said they are also interested in reducing plastic and educating people to buy only what they need to reduce waste.

For more information visit foodrescuenorthland.nz.