New Zealand produces enough food each year to feed a country of 40 million people, according to Aotearoa Food Rescue Alliance (AFRA).
AFRA says one third of all food produced goes to waste and food rescue is part of the solution.
"Across NZ, food rescue organisations rescue on average 20 tonnes of quality food a day that would otherwise go to waste and distribute it to people in need, with a measured social return on investment of $4.50 for every $1 invested."
In 2022, Auckland food rescue bank FairFood saved 621,760kg of surplus groceries, provided 1.8 million meals to communities, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 1648 tonnes.
1News visited the FairFood today to take a closer a look at the foods sent to them from places like Countdown and Farro Fresh.
Among the hundreds of kilograms of surplus groceries was milk with a best before two days from now, wheels of brie cheese with today as their best before, and punnets of tomatoes that didn't weigh 180g like they advertised.
FairFood general manager Michelle Blau told 1News it's a common misconception that food waste is the same as food scraps.
She said most of the food discarded for being past its best before is actually "perfectly fine" to eat.
Blau said even if there's damage to just one banana or one pottle of yoghurt in a pack, the entire thing is thrown out and can't be sold.
"Eighteen tonnes of food came through this hub last week, that's 51,091 meals that have been put on the table that would have otherwise been in as skip bin if we weren't here."
Food rescue and politics
Today AFRA launched a campaign called Nourishing Aotearoa, calling for cross-party support to end food waste in Aotearoa.
AFRA's engagement and partnerships lead Iain Lees-Galloway told 1News the organisation wants politicians to commit to three policies: sustainable funding, a food plan for New Zealand, and mandatory reporting of food waste.
Recently the Government announced $6 million towards food rescue and security in New Zealand, but Lees-Galloway said it's not enough.
"This $6 million that was announced last week is an acknowledgement that the amount of funding put aside for food rescue and food banks in the Budget was not enough.
"We know that more and more people are lining up at food banks this year than ever before, we know that food relief organisations are struggling to get food themselves to feed people in need.
"There is just an enormous amount of need at the moment with the cost of living, with inflation being the way it is and so we need our foodbanks and our food rescue organisations to be properly resourced to meet the need that exists now."
Labour MP Angie Warren-Clark told 1News food rescue is an "intractable wicked issue" that all parties in Government need to address.
Asked if she would commit to cross-party work on food rescue, Warren-Clark said she "certainly would".
"I guess this is one of those wicked issues that we need everyone's thoughts on, we need the NGO sector, we need the Government sector, but we also need to make sure that this has the longevity across Parliament.
"There's no point in starting something and not finishing it because the government has changed."
She said it might look like politicians "fight all the time" in Parliament, but there are "many things" they agree on.
"People going hungry is something that we can all agree in our society shouldn't happen and if that takes us all sitting around the table trying to work out the issues, well power to us, why not."
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