Let’s throw away less food, and save more

The average New Zealand family wastes around $664 worth of food a year. That’s around three full shopping trolleys. Top of the heap is bread – we throw out an average of 20 million loaves each year. That’s a waste of food and our hard-earned dough.

However, you can make sure that food doesn’t go to waste by getting into a few good habits:

• Shop with a list
• Plan your meals and only buy what you need
• Store your bread in the freezer
• Stew fruit or make smoothies
• Take your leftovers for lunch.

With a bit of thought, it’s easy to rescue food and save money.

Facing the facts about food waste

Every year, it’s estimated New Zealand wastes more than 100,000* tonnes of food.

You might be surprised to know it’s wasted because of use-by dates, mislabelling, damaged packaging or even cancelled orders.

Around 60%* of all food dumped into landfills is perfectly good to eat.

At the same time, one in every five Kiwi children live in households^ where there isn’t enough food to put on the table.

Food waste also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, squandering the water, land and energy used to grow it.

At Rabobank we work together with farmers, helping them sustainably grow food for New Zealanders, and the world. The last thing anyone wants to see is any food being wasted, especially when families are going hungry.

That’s why we’ve teamed up with national food rescue charity KiwiHarvest, who are doing something about it.

* Ministry for the Environment commissioned report, Household Waste Data 2008
^ Ministry of Health Household Food Insecurity Among Children: New Zealand Health Survey 2019

With our help, KiwiHarvest will immediately be able to invest in much needed resources and equipment at its South Auckland warehouse, plus another refrigerated vehicle for collecting food.

Rabobank teams across the country will get involved by providing valuable community volunteering, including helping out at KiwiHarvest’s distribution centres.

Rabobank is a regular at events such as National and Regional Field days where we attract lots of visitors, we’ll spread the word about reducing food waste, supporting families in need and helping the environment.

Globally, approximately 40% of all food produced doesn’t make it to the plate