FORMER Hull East MP Lord John Prescott is urging supermarkets to get behind his idea of donating more goods to food banks.
Lord Prescott believes the "buy one, get on free" (bogof) offers are only leading to households throwing more food out.
Instead, he wants supermarkets to donate the second item to food banks.
Mr Prescott said: "Being able to feed your family is one of the basic asks of any parent.
"So imagine the shame you must feel when, through no fault of your own, you can't even do that."
The former deputy prime minister said that, since last year, the Hull city centre food bank has given out nearly 10 tonnes of food to more than 900 families – all donated from the public and supermarkets.
In his column for a national newspaper, Lord Prescott mentions a woman named Paula, who visited the Hull food bank for the first time on Friday.
Lord Prescott said: "I watched as the volunteers instantly put her at ease, listening to her problems and helping her with her first collection.
"This was human kindness and charity at its best."
Lord Prescott feels shoppers would be happy to help donate through the bogof offers. He said: "According to the Government's Waste and Resources Action Programme, the average UK family wastes nearly £700 a year by throwing out unused food and drink from supermarkets.
"A lot of this is caused by so-called bogof offers.
"So let's change it to buy one, give one to a food bank. Supermarkets should offer to give away the second purchase to their local food bank.
"I think it's a great way to show corporate responsibility and build loyalty to their store."
"I'm sure many of us would be delighted to know that, by spending an extra 50p or so, that the food we'd probably end up throwing away goes to someone like Paula."
Half a million people across the UK now rely on the goodwill of the community and the support of food banks, with the numbers relying on food banks tripling since 2011.
Lord Prescott said: "Oxfam – which normally looks after the starving in Africa, not East Yorkshire – has blamed the benefit cuts, unemployment and the increased cost of living for the growth in UK hunger and poverty.
"The problem is, it is in underemployment – part-time work and zero-hours contracts – keeping people on a diet of low pay and high uncertainty."
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