Hunger is often associated with developing countries, but food insecurity is also present in higher income countries, including the richest country in the world, the United States.

The UN wants more people to understand that a way to effectively tackle the problem, and take a big step towards ending hunger, is to reduce the billions of tonnes of food that are lost and wasted each year.

Ahead of the first International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, on 29 September, Conor Lennon from UN News visited a community kitchen in Brooklyn, New York, to find out how reducing food loss and waste can make a big difference to some of society’s most vulnerable.

The event was co-organized by the FAO and UN Environment Programme Liaison Offices in New York, the Permanent Missions of Andorra and San Marino to the United Nations, Rethink Food and Collective Fare.