Food waste has been declared a global challenge by the United Nations, and over the past year, some B.C. entrepreneurs have stepped up to make use of second-grade produce that often ends up in landfills.

But for Oliver's Greg Masson, finding a home for blemished fruits and veggies is nothing new. In fact, his organization Okanagan Gleaners has been doing it for 20 years — and fighting world hunger in the process.

The organization collects excess fruits and vegetables that would otherwise end up in a landfill due to aesthetic issues that keep them from making it to supermarket shelves. The team dehydrates them, turns them into dry vegetable soup mix and ships them to different charities around the world.

"When we started in 1996, we were able to produce 100,000 servings of soup," Masson told host Sheryl MacKay on CBC's North by Northwest. "In 2016, we were able to provide 6.8 million servings of soup."

Masson says when a large group of volunteers are at it, production can look a bit like organized chaos. (Okanagan Gleaners/Facebook)

In the last year alone, Okanagan Gleaners has fed people in Ethiopia, Guatemala, Ukraine, Fiji, Swaziland and Lesotho.

The small non-profit society works directly with local farmers, who donate fruits and veggies that aren't appealing to common consumers even though there's really nothing wrong with the products.

"The abundance of produce that the farmers are donating to us — what they donate to us is produce that is either too big for market, too small, too ripe or not ripe enough. It could be a green pepper that's got red and yellow on it," said Masson.

"We've had some onions that are beach ball sizes — people won't buy them that big," said Masson.

Masson says the group couldn't operate without the generosity of the farmers and the large pool of volunteers who try to make it whenever they can.

In the latest year of production, the team at Okanagan Gleaners made 6.8 million servings of soup. (Okanagan Gleaners/Facebook)

"We had a low of nine a day, and we had a high of 70. We have no idea how many people are going to help us out on any given day," he said.

He admits that when there's a crowd of volunteers, production can be a bit chaotic — but they're all there with the same goal: to help someone in need.

"We will never know who that person is," he said. "But nutrition is just so key in North America that it's time that some of these other countries were able to obtain the same nutrition, and that's what we're doing."

With files from CBC's North by Northwest

To listen to the full interview, click on the audio labelled: Excess Okanagan fruits and veggies feed millions overseas