Giving Compass' Take:

• Food Tank reports on OzHarvest, an Australian organization that plans to halve food waste by 2030 through dedication and perseverance. 

• OzHarvest has since expanded its frontier in fixing the food system beyond rescuing food and feeding those in need, particularly through its education programs. 

• Here's a roadmap to addressing food waste. 

Ronni Kahn started OzHarvest more than a decade ago and since then, the organization has delivered nearly 110 million meals to those in need while keeping over 37,000 tons of food from reaching landfills. Food Tank spoke to Kahn about how the organization has placed the issue of food waste into center stage. “We’ve created this problem, and we must create the solution. Our challenge then, is changing our behavior,” Kahn tells Food Tank.

Determined to rescue perfectly edible, nutritious, and tasty food from ending up in landfills, Ronni lobbied the Australian Government to help change laws that put donors of excess food at risk of lawsuits. OzHarvest now works with 3,500 businesses that donate food—food which OzHarvest prepares and delivers to more than 1,300 charities across the country. However, it may take a big change in consumer education to prevent wasting food in the first place, notes Kahn. “Because we’ve lost the connection of how food is produced and where it comes from, we’ve lost our own sense of confidence around how to manage and how to value food,” Kahn tells Food Tank. “So, if you look at labeling laws and the issue of labeling, we don’t trust ourselves.”

Read the full article on OzHarvest by Douglas Donnellan at Food Tank.