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In the depths of supermarket dumpsters, Danny Carney finds enough food for himself for a week, as well as food for his community.
Danny is a member of Grassroots Action Network Tasmania (GRANT), a community group that advocates for justice.
Members regularly "dumpster dive" and place the food they find in supermarkets' bins in a community fridge.
The 37-year-old said group members were so outraged by their haul one night that they put it on display outside a major supermarket in one of Hobart's most expensive suburbs.
"People were immediately grateful," Mr Carney said.
"But also just furious that the supermarkets are getting away with it."
He said the majority of those who stopped to look at the produce took some home for free instead of purchasing it from the supermarket.
Dumpster divers speak at federal inquiry
GRANT members took their concerns to the Senate inquiry into supermarket prices, which held its first public hearings in Hobart on Thursday.
The inquiry is investigating food pricing practices and the market power of supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths following scrutiny of their business practices during the current cost-of-living crisis.
"I hear from young people that are having to jump into the bins or steal food and basic essential items like toiletries, sanitary pads and all that kind of stuff because they simply can't afford them," Mr Carney said.
"But, likewise, I'm hearing from older people that are saying, 'I can't afford to eat three times a day anymore.'
"Food is an essential human right, and if we're going to talk about it like that, we have to recognise that we can't leave it up to two big companies."
Fellow GRANT member Amelia Cromb also gave evidence to the inquiry.
"Supermarkets stock these items at such a high price … and then at the end of the day [are] just discarding them like they suddenly have no value at all," Ms Cromb said.
"It's totally unacceptable. I think it's criminal behaviour that this food at this time is going in the bin when people are going hungry."
Young people 'learning to cope with being hungry'
Youth Network of Tasmania chief executive Tania Hunt told the inquiry young people were skipping meals to keep up with the rising cost of living.
"Many young people are learning to cope with being hungry … [and] often only have one meal a day," Ms Hunt said.
She said young people reported spending a significant amount of time in supermarkets searching for the cheapest items, and often left with food of low nutritious value.
"A lot of people reported buying really poor-quality two-minute noodles — not very nutritious food," she said.
Supermarket guidelines 'nearly impossible'
Michael Badcock, a semi-retired farmer who spent more than 20 years supplying cabbages and cauliflower to Woolworths, told the inquiry that working with the supermarkets was "massively stressful".
"Over time, the quality guidelines became nearly impossible," Mr Badcock said.
"There's a massive waste in this system."
He told the inquiry other farmers were not speaking up for fear of backlash from the duopoly.
Mr Badcock said if he was an active supplier or backup supplier to one of the major supermarkets he would "be history" for speaking to the committee.
"If you're rejected, you [have] nowhere else to sell that [produce to] because there was just no alternative, especially in Tasmania," he said.
No opportunity to 'shop about' in Tasmania
Coles and Woolworths control 65 per cent of the grocery market in Australia.
The committee heard that control was even greater in Tasmania.
"In Tasmania, we only have two supermarkets," committee member senator Tammy Tyrell said.
"We don't have a lot of the other major brands, so we can't shop about.
"People can't go to Costco or Aldi to find that cheaper produce … we are very stuck."
Mr Badcock said this put extra pressure on Tasmanian farmers.
"If you're a Woolworths supplier, they would penalise you if you tried to get into Coles and vice versa," he told the inquiry.
"Tasmania is rather unique in [the way] we don't have any fresh markets, like [there are in] Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, and that gives us no area to get rid of any product."
A spokesperson for Coles said the organisation was aware of how the cost of living was impacting consumers, and was actively looking at ways to keep prices down.
"We are working hard to help Australians put quality food on the table at affordable prices – particularly as many face escalating living costs with higher mortgages and rents and increasing expenses like energy and fuel," they said.
"We are doing this against a challenging environment of high inflation, with rising costs that affect the whole economy including farmers, suppliers and retailers, and which impact the prices customers pay at the checkout."
Coles said the supermarket chain also worked with food rescue organisations such as SecondBite and Foodbank to counter food waste where possible.
A spokesperson for the Woolworths Group said it worked hard to reduce food waste across stores where possible, but sometimes food could not be donated to charities for safety reasons.
"Every one of our stores has a partnership with a local hunger relief organisation, passing on any food that can't be sold, but is still safe to eat," they said.
What happens from here?
Committee member Greens senator Nick McKim said the inquiry was important.
"We've got to get to the bottom of why farmers feel that they're not getting a fair price at the farm gate and we turn around and millions of Australians feel like they're getting price gouged at the check-out," Senator Nick McKim said.
"The more we can hear about the day-to-day lived experience of ordinary people who are struggling in the cost-of-living emergency, I'm sure the stronger the recommendations of the committee will be.
The committee will hold two more public hearings; in Orange and Melbourne.
Its final report is due on May 7.
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