In other words, nearly three quarters of a million people, out of 24 million in a country that is one of the richest in the world and a major food producer, seek help to feed themselves each month.

As reported in Saturday’s Central Western Daily, Orange’s Foodcare is one service which puts food on the table for those in need, with its donations from supermarkets, businesses and FoodBank NSW helping around 100 families survive.

The other part of the food consumption story? Australian households waste prodigious amounts of food – 800,000 tonnes of it in NSW alone, every year.

By themselves, the two parts of this story are surprising enough. Put them together and they are genuinely shocking.

Waste on this scale is staggering when at the same time the need is so great. The contrast is gross enough to call our society's values into question.

Food bought and then thrown out is only part of the picture. Our society's careless attitude to food shows itself in many ways.

One example: some supermarkets routinely throw out non-standard produce – a carrot that might look a bit odd, or a misshapen potato, or a banana not curved enough to fit conventional ideas, won't make it onto the shelves.

Supermarkets restrict what they offer because they know we – their customers – can't cope if we are presented with anything unconventional. We can hardly blame them, then, for catering to our picky tastes.

Australia's record is not good here, but it is not unique. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, about a third of all food produced in the world is wasted.

Somewhere along the production chain from grower to distributor to retailer to consumer, food is lost, spilt, spoilt or squandered.

The scale of the problem remains vast. Why that is so – and what attitudes lie behind the wasting of food – are to be studied by the NSW government's Environment Protection Authority.

Yet in the end, governments can probably do little other than inform the public of the problem. Apart from obvious health regulations, they should not even try.

It is up to each of us to be aware of waste, and to reduce and avoid it as far as possible.