A group of Kiwis are determined to fight food waste this holiday season.
Fair Food is an organisation that works seven days a week, 365 days a year, to try and fix two major issues in New Zealand - food poverty and food waste.
An army of volunteers operate out of a West Auckland warehouse, constantly sorting through food destined for the landfill and trying to find it a home where it's desperately needed.
Two thousand kilograms of kai is delivered to the organisation by supermarkets who have, for a range of different reasons, deemed it unable to be sold.
Fair Food general manager Michelle Blau said it's usually produce that consumers won't buy due to being disfigured or unattractive.
"People often buy food like strawberries, blueberries and tomatoes in groups, but as soon as one item goes off then no one is purchasing it. That doesn't mean we can't pick through it and make a a beautiful new box of strawberries for someone else," she said.
This examination process means they're able to turn that two tonnes of food into 6000 meal boxes, working with 50 different charities to get it to those in need.
"When people are hungry there's no reason why perfectly good food should end up in the bin," Blau told 1News.
"We're trying to recognise ourselves into none existence, the big numbers represent more hunger and more waste, neither of which we want to see."
Another group who doesn't want to see waste are the supermarkets themselves. Despite being able to donate the disfigured products, or ones nearing their best before date to organisations like Fair Food, they're trying to ensure more of what they buy ends purchased and in peoples homes rather than in the bin.
One way Foodstuffs is tackling this issue is through WhyWaste - a new app that helps stores keep track of best before dates in chilled departments. It's only in 60 stores across the country, but its helped those shops cut down on what they throw out by 50%.
Results have been even more successful in the 9-month-old Whangaparāoa New World, north of Auckland city. The store's general manager James Cardno said waste has gone down by two thirds.
"The app takes the work away and just says here's 50-70 products you need to check today, then our team can check them and know the others are within a time to sell them," said Cardno.
Foodstuffs said continuing the work to cut down waste is a top priority, with hopes the app will continue to develop to improve purchase predictions.
While Fair Food is working to put discarded supermarket kai to use, it said every New Zealand household needs to do their part to limit food waste this silly season.
"People often shop like they're feeding an army not a family," said Blau.
"Think of all the effort it takes to get the food to your plate. Honour it by not throwing it in the bin."
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