Canadian non-profit food rescue group, Second Harvest, says almost $50-billion worth of usable groceries ends up in landfills every year.
It found 58% of the food produced in Canada is either lost or wasted.
Lenetta Parry, the Executive Director of the Central Okanagan Food Bank, says to curb large-scale waste, they have a program involving local grocery stores.
"We are able to rescue food that is still usable, and it comes straight to the food bank and we're able to get it to the front lines of hunger. There are grocery partners here locally that are doing their best to reduce food waste," she says.
Parry says the food bank serves about 4,000 people every month - 335 of them children under age 15 - and 125 are seniors on a fixed income.
Another stat that Second Harvest released was that more than $1,700 dollars worth of food is wasted every year in the average Canadian kitchen.
Parry says you can always donate food to them before it expires - but this is also an issue about how we use food.
"There are a lot of ways where people can take the food and still use it, make soups, pasta sauces and jams; things people can do in their homes before they have that last resort and throw it out," she says.
The Central Okanagan Food Bank has two locations - on Enterprise Way in Kelowna - and on Churchill Road in West Kelowna.