Northern Rivers Nationals MPs Chris Gulaptis, Thomas George, Geoff Provest and Ben Franklin have announced $24,500 in funding for a project to help divert some of the 200,000 tonnes of food waste from business that ends up in landfill in NSW each year. The grant was awarded to North East Waste under the NSW Government’s Food Donation Education Program under the Waste Less Recycle More Initiative. The MPs welcomed the funding which will help to make sure good quality surplus food ends up on plates rather than the bin, benefitting both the environment and people facing food insecurity. The Northern Rivers Food Hub Feasibility Study and Gap Analysis will gather information to direct future food donation programs and the barriers stopping them from being a success. These projects provide food relief agencies with extra resources to sign up more donors, work collaboratively and collect more surplus food for redistribution. Every year in NSW, almost a million tonnes of food waste ends up in landfill, 200,000 tonnes of which is from businesses. This funding from the waste levy helps to redirect quality surplus food from businesses before it even becomes a waste. These grants complement grants funding available to food relief agencies for equipment like fridges, freezers and refrigerated vans to increase their capacity to collect, store and manage more donated food. Initiatives like this will result in more edible food being donated from business and distributed to people in need. These grants are helping to make the most of food in NSW before it becomes a waste. The program will provide $2 million over two funding rounds. This project is one of 11 projects supported in Round 1 with $971,733. Waste Less, Recycle More is an $802 million NSW Government initiative to keep waste out of landfill, increase food and garden waste collections, boost business recycling and invest in new infrastructure. For more information on Food Donation Grants visit: www.epa.nsw.gov.au/your-environment/recycling-and-reuse/business-government-recycling/recycling-organics-work/food-donation.