Starbucks will donate all of its leftover food from its 7,000-plus U.S. stores to the nation's food banks, the company announced.

The coffee giant said that, it aims to contribute 100 percent of its unsold food to Feeding America. It is a non-profit organization, which runs a national network of food banks.

Starbucks CEO,  Howard Schultz, said that, the idea came from baristas behind the counter. According to the company, it aims to donate 5 million meals in 2016 and the company already invested in the research conducting to find the best way to preserve the food safe, until it is consumed.

A spokeswoman for Starbucks, said that, "The partners would say, 'It hurts to throw perfectly good food in a landfill.' It took a couple years to get the food in a safe way to people in need."

"All of our internal testing gave us the confidence to do that," the Starbucks spokeswoman said. "It will be a while to take what we learned and apply it to other markets," she added.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture,  nearly 30 to 40 percent of America's food supply is wasted. Around 48.1 million Americans struggled against hunger at some point during 2014, said Feeding America. The website of the non-profit organization, shows that, the organization serves over 46 million people across the country, through its soup kitchens, food pantries and shelters.

Nandini