Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, Black Fern with two rugby World Cup medals, a gold and silver from the Olympics, and a string of other awards, has a new challenge in her sights: helping Aotearoa New Zealand to save some money and help the planet at the same time.

Woodman-Wickliffe has teamed up with food rescue outfit KiwiHarvest and Hello Fresh to highlight the problem and was tasked with pushing a scrum machine loaded with 115kg of food, representing the average food wasted by each Kiwi household in a year.

Rugby World Champion Portia Woodman-Wickliffe pushed a rugby scrum machine with 115kg of food - the average food waste of each Kiwi household in a year. Photo / Michael Craig

“That was not easy; 115kg worth of food waste is a lot and I think there’s lots of little things we can implement to limit this,” Woodman-Wickliffe said.

With household budgets stretched by constantly rising food prices, it makes sense to save a few dollars by reducing waste. But figures out this week show New Zealanders throw more than $3 billion worth of food each year - more than $1500 per household per year.

Woodman-Wickliffe advocates a few simple solutions to reducing waste and helping out the budget at the same time.

“Portion control, eating leftovers and using Hello Fresh as a meal-planning service,” she said trying to get her breath back. “These are small steps but they’re going to make a big difference for Aotearoa.”

Environment NZ Manatū Mō Te Taiao estimates we throw away about a third of all food produced each year, representing 9 per cent of our methane and 4 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing food waste helps lower our greenhouse gas emissions, including in the food production process, as well as emissions from the decomposition of food waste in landfill.

Hello Fresh NZ CEO Tom Rutledge was impressed with Woodman-Wickliffe’s efforts on the scrum machine.

Tom Rutledge, HelloFresh New Zealand CEO, Portia Woodman-Wickliffe and Angela Calver, KiwiHarvest CEO. Photo / Michael Craig

“We’ve seen Portia push a scrum machine loaded with 115kg of food,” he said. “She’s been a tremendous ambassador for Kiwi Harvest and a tremendous pusher of the scrum machine able to shift that amount of food waste.”

Rutledge said Hello Fresh was fully behind the campaign to reduce food waste and to raise money so it can support delivering food to families in need.

“We’d like to see food waste reduced by people buying just what they need, eating their leftovers and not pouring their money down the drain,” he said.

KiwHarvest has a mission to collect good food that would go to waste and get it to families in need. Each month they rescue between 170,000 and 200,000kg of good-quality surplus food and divert it to people who are struggling across New Zealand.

Kiwiharvest rescues food that would otherwise be wasted redistribution to people in need. Photo / Supplied

They have calculated that the population of Dunedin, about 150,00, could be fed with food that heads to landfill each year.

By working with supermarkets, wholesalers, cafes, restaurants and hotels, KiwiHarvest is able to feed people and contribute to our environmental responsibilities at the same time.

• To get involved, contact KiwiHarvest at https://www.kiwiharvest.org.nz/. But take the first step with one of Woodman-Wickliffe’s simple solutions and help the family budget too.