SDG 2 · Zero hunger
Surplus food reaches people who would otherwise go hungry, through verified NGOs, shelters and community kitchens.
Surplus food donation across BangladeshPut a smileon their faces.
Every night good food is thrown away while, not far off, someone sleeps hungry. FoodBridge is the bridge between the two, in every city and town in Bangladesh: you share the food you have left, a verified NGO nearby confirms it, and a volunteer carries it to people who need it while it’s still fresh.
See how it works →Donate money →
- Free for donors
- Verified NGOs
- Food-safety checks on every post
Photo: GMB Akash
- of food wasted by households every year · UNEP 2024
- 14.1M t
- people can’t count on enough food · FAO 2026
- 45.4M
- of the country’s food is lost or wasted · World Bank 2025
- 34%
Food waste in Bangladesh
How much food is wasted in Bangladesh? 38,600 tonnes, every single day
Bangladeshi households alone throw away an estimated 14.1 million tonnes of food a year. That’s 82 kg for every person: more than households in the United States or China.
Food wasted by households in Bangladesh since you opened this page
0 kg
about 447 kg every second
- every day
- 38,600 tonnes
- every month
- 1.18 million tonnes
- every year
- 14.1 million tonnes
- per person a year, about 225 g a day
- 82 kg
— UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 (household food waste). Daily and monthly figures divide the annual estimate evenly.
Bangladesh in charts
What the research and the news say about the food we throw away.
Households lead food waste
Household food waste per person in South Asia and beyond: Bangladesh wastes 82 kg per person a year, more than the United States or China.
— UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024, via The Business Standard
Most of our rubbish is food
About 80% of the waste collected in Bangladesh’s cities and towns is food waste.
— Waste Concern, 2021
In the news
Tap a story to read it
Household food waste per person (kg a year)
- Bangladesh82
- China76
- United States73
- India55
— UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024
Share lost or wasted, by food
- Tomato27.9%
- Lentils27%
- Carrot26.8%
- Rice23%
- Potato21.8%
- Banana19.9%
— World Bank study presented in Dhaka, 29 September 2025
Across the whole food chain, from farm to plate
- of available food is lost or wasted
- 34%
- of GDP is lost with it
- 4%
- of national greenhouse emissions (29 Mt CO₂e)
- 13%
- of farmland grows food that nobody eats
- 27%
— World Bank study presented in Dhaka, 29 September 2025
Chawkbazar, Old Dhaka: plenty on display every Ramadan evening. What isn’t sold by night often isn’t eaten.
Where Bangladesh’s food waste happens
Cooked for hundreds
Holud nights and weddings are planned for big crowds. When the guests leave, trays of untouched food often have nowhere to go.
After the feast
Plates stacked after a large event. Cooked rice and curry spoil within hours unless someone moves them fast.
Karwan Bazar, Dhaka
Produce from across the country passes through Dhaka’s biggest wholesale market. More than a fifth of potatoes and tomatoes are lost or wasted along the way.
Where it ends up
Mixed waste piled on open ground by the water. Food rotting in dumps like this gives off methane.
Hunger & food insecurity
Food insecurity in Bangladesh: 1 in 4 people can’t count on enough food
The food exists. Yet tens of millions of people skip meals, eat less than they need, or can’t afford a healthy diet.
45.4 million
people (26.2%) were moderately or severely food insecure in 2023–2025
— FAO, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026
- people projected to face crisis-level hunger (IPC Phase 3+), September–December 2026— IPC Bangladesh, July 2026
- 18.1 million
- people projected in Emergency (IPC Phase 4)— IPC Bangladesh, July 2026
- 787,000
- of people cannot afford a healthy diet— World Bank, 2025
- 66%
- children under five is stunted (24%)— Bangladesh DHS 2022
- 1 in 4
Hunger in Bangladesh, in pictures
Behind every number is a person. These are the faces our volunteers carry food to.
“I’m hungry”
Some children learn to ask for food before they learn to read. A hungry evening is a normal evening for far too many.
A mother’s worry
When there isn’t enough, mothers eat last. Children who go without in their first years carry it for life.
A meal shapes a childhood
What a child eats today decides how they grow. One in four children under five in Bangladesh is stunted.
Every pot held out
When cooked food arrives, hands reach from every side. There is never quite enough to go round.
When food arrives
Relief distributions draw crowds within minutes, a sign of how many families live one missed meal away from hunger.
Waiting their turn
Families wait at a Ramadan food distribution. When food arrives organised, nobody has to fight for it.
One shared plate, one smile. That’s what your leftover food can do.
Donate food
The missing link
Why surplus food doesn’t reach hungry people
A caterer with 80 plates left over has no idea which shelter three streets away needs them, or who could carry them there before they spoil. The gap isn’t food. It’s a connection, and FoodBridge is that connection.
- Surplus food
- FoodBridge
- People in need
The other side of the bridge
Children sharing a hot meal. This is what surplus food becomes when it reaches the right hands in time.
Served while it’s warm
Rice served straight from the pot. Cooked food is safest eaten within hours, so speed matters.
Ready for families
Food packs laid out at a Ramadan distribution for Rohingya refugees. NGOs know who needs food; FoodBridge helps the food find them.
What FoodBridge is doing
From an NGO’s request to a child’s smile
This is what happens on FoodBridge every day, in every town where people sign up. Nobody has to keep refreshing a website: the right people are told at the right moment.
1 · The NGO asks“We need rice meals for 40 children tonight”
A verified NGO, shelter or community kitchen posts what it needs: the food, how many people, where and by when.
2 · Donors nearby are toldThe request reaches donors’ phones and dashboards
Restaurants, caterers, halls and households near the NGO get an alert. They don’t have to keep checking the site: the request comes to them.
- 3 · A donor answers
“I’ll have some food left. I can give this.”
A donor approves the request in one tap, or leaves a comment, and posts the food (or lets our chat helper fill in the form for them).
- 4 · The NGO confirms, a volunteer carries
Confirmed, collected, delivered
The NGO confirms the food, the nearest available volunteer is offered the pickup, and everyone can follow it to the door.
5 · A smile at the endHot food on a plate, not in a bin
The NGO serves the meals to people nearby who need them and records how many ate. That number becomes the donor’s impact.
Made so donors don’t have to keep coming back
- Alerts when an NGO near you needs food, in the app and on SMS, WhatsApp or Messenger
- Reply or approve in one tap, straight from your dashboard
- Tell our chat helper what you have; it fills in the donation form for you
- Free pickup from your door by a verified volunteer
Donate in a chat
Not sure where to start? Our AI helper greets you, asks a few simple questions one at a time, checks the food-safety rules and fills in the donation form for you. You just check it and post.
How FoodBridge works
How food donation works: from surplus to served in five steps
Three kinds of people, one tracked journey from the kitchen to the plate.
- 1Donor
Post
A restaurant, wedding hall or household posts what’s left, how much, and the time it must be eaten by.
- 2NGO
Match
FoodBridge suggests it to the nearest verified NGO that needs it. They accept in one tap.
- 3Volunteer
Pick up
The closest available volunteer is offered the pickup and collects it from the door.
- 4Volunteer
Deliver
The food reaches the NGO while it’s still fresh. Donor and NGO can follow every step.
- 5NGO
Serve
The NGO serves it and records how many people ate. That number becomes everyone’s impact.
Safe, or not at all
Every post carries a best-before time. Once it passes, the food is never matched or picked up.
Get involved
Donate food, receive food or volunteer, anywhere in Bangladesh
Every NGO and volunteer is checked by our team before they can receive food or pickup tasks.
So far, together
Our food rescue impact in Bangladesh
Every number here is a plate that was filled, counted from completed deliveries on FoodBridge, not estimated.
Food left in a landfill rots into methane. Food on a plate doesn’t.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
The global goals FoodBridge works towards
Every plate rescued on FoodBridge counts towards the goals Bangladesh has signed up to for 2030.
Our main goals
SDG 12 · Target 12.3: halve food waste
Food that would be thrown away is eaten instead. Every completed donation is counted, so the waste we prevent is measured, not guessed.
We also support
SDG 13 · Climate action
Food rotting in dumps gives off methane. Food waste is 13% of Bangladesh’s greenhouse emissions; rescuing it cuts that.
SDG 17 · Partnerships for the goals
Donors, NGOs, volunteers and local businesses work as one network instead of alone.
SDG 1 · No poverty
A free meal leaves families a little more for rent, school and medicine.
Donate money
No food to give? You can still help
Your money pays for packaging, transport and hot meals where food donations don’t reach. Every taka goes to feeding people.
about 20 meals
bKash, Nagad and card payments are coming soon.
Donate leftover food tonight, wherever you are
Post it now. It could be on someone’s plate before it goes cold.