We all loathe to see food go to waste, but did you know that here in Australia we throw away more than eight million tonnes of food each year? When your mission is to alleviate food insecurity across Australia – this amount of wastage is an unspeakable tragedy.

Solving the issue of food insecurity, however, is no easy feat. Given most good food has a limited shelf life, food wastage happens all over our hugely vast nation before it can find its way to a donation centre. As a result, connecting excess food supply to someone in need has to happen quickly, and it has to happen locally.

The stark reality is that more than 70,000 Australians seeking food relief are turned away per month. Sadly, one third of these are children.

So it’s with this in mind, those of us at Food For Change put on our thinking caps to see how we could grow a network that would provide a simple solution – a solution that would ensure that the estimated 3.6 million Australians seeking food relief each year are not turned away. It’s why we’re really proud to shout about our latest hungry relief program…. our new ‘Donate Food’ option.

If you’re reading this online – look up into the top right hand corner. See it? Yes, that’s the button you want to start to familiarise yourself with. Next to the ‘$ Make a Donation’ option, which we know you’re all very acquainted with already (because just $2 can help us provide 10 nutritious meals, and all funds are tax deductible).

The ‘Donate Food’ service is Food For Change’s newest initiative in our efforts to ensure no Australian goes hungry again. How does it work, you ask?

Through the power of people and local connection. Simple really!

Food For Change supports local food relief organisations across the nation, and we’ve curated all the details into one large central database. So if you’re not located near one of our farm sites, you can now donate directly to your closest relief centre. So to help us ensure that we’re minimising wastage, and helping to feed the hungry – we’re imploring all of you as individuals, workplaces and community groups to help us drive food donations.

Want to do one better? Why not coordinate a food drive to donate? Collect items from you colleagues, or community sport team mates? Why not chat to your kids’ school or rally local restaurants in the area?

Even the smallest of contributions can stave off hunger for someone for an extra day so before you think about throwing something away, ask yourself can I donate it today instead?