As Jim Chalmers convenes the Economic Reform Roundtable, the national conversation has once again turned to how we can boost productivity.

But while economists are set to debate tax settings, capital flows and workforce participation, a critical lever for improving economic efficiency will be left off the agenda: food rescue.

In standard economic terms, productivity measures how much output we can produce from a given set of inputs. But what if much of that output is simply wasted? And what if there’s a proven, low-cost mechanism for turning that waste into social and economic value? If we fail to account for waste in our productivity calculations, we’re missing a major opportunity to improve both efficiency and wellbeing.

In the food economy, this blind spot is staggering. Australia wastes around 7.6 million tonnes of food every year – that means one third of all food grown in Australia never gets eaten. This waste happens across farms, manufacturers, retailers and households. It’s baked into the cost of doing business, and has become a hidden cost to companies, communities and the nation.

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At the same time, food insecurity is affecting a third of Australian households. More than 3.4 million Australians – including one in five children – are regularly going without enough to eat. We estimate the gap between what vulnerable households need and what they can afford amounts to around 100,000 tonnes of food annually – just 2.6 per cent of the food currently wasted across primary production and commercial sectors.

This is a textbook case of market failure: surplus on one side, unmet need on the other, and no profit incentive to bridge the gap. That’s where food rescue comes in.

OzHarvest, along with other for-purpose food rescue organisations across the country, has spent two decades building a highly efficient system to intercept good food before it goes to waste and deliver it to people who need it most. We do this through a unique model that leverages proven logistics technology and Australia’s vast volunteer labour force, and works in close partnership with food businesses, charities, and local communities.

We know how to make every dollar count. Our sector can deliver two nourishing meals for every $1 invested, with a more-than-10-times social return on investment. That means for an additional $100 million, we could rescue and redistribute an additional 100,000 tonnes of food – the equivalent of 200 million meals – to close the nation’s food insecurity gap and also avoid 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Try finding another productivity reform with that kind of return!

Of course, food rescue is not the full solution. Food insecurity is driven by complex and systemic issues: poverty, insecure housing, underemployment, and the rising cost of living. Food waste, too, stems from structural inefficiencies, perverse incentives and entrenched behaviours. These problems require long-term, system-level reforms.

But while we work on those (and we must) food rescue is the fastest, cheapest, and most shovel-ready intervention we have. It delivers immediate benefits for people, communities, and the environment, while making our food system more efficient and our economy more inclusive.

There’s a broader lesson here for policymakers: productivity shouldn’t be measured solely by output per worker or per dollar invested. A more meaningful national metric would be how effectively we meet people’s needs with the resources we already have. That’s a productivity agenda worth pursuing.

James is the CEO of OzHarvest. He joined the organisation from ASX-listed Seven Group Holdings where he was Chief Operating Officer, and brings extensive business, operations, and leadership experience to OzHarvest. Prior to SGH, James was Head of Strategy and Corporate Development at Woolworths Group, Partner at the Boston Consulting Group, and has served on the Board of the international NGO ActionAid Australia and the data company Quantium.