U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is pushing bipartisan legislation that would make it easier for restaurants to donate food to charities and food banks.

        The Feeding Needy Families Act, co-sponsored by Arkansas Democrat Blanche Lincoln, would expand the tax deduction that restaurants, food-service businesses and farms are allowed to take on donated food.

        Allowing the deduction would increase the amount of food going to the needy, Mr. McConnell said.

        Mr. McConnell, a Louisville Republican, said billions of dollars in food is wasted each year and that 20 percent of the demand at food banks was unmet last year.

        “Perhaps the most awful statistic is that while many of us wait in line to purchase, or to be served, abundant amounts of food, many hungry families will wait in line at food banks and never receive a meal,” he said.

        Though the tax code allows restaurants to deduct a portion of the value of donated food, the Internal Revenue Service has determined the food has little value.

        Because restaurants have to store and transport the food as well as pay labor costs for shipping, restaurants can actually lose money by donating surplus food instead of throwing it away.

        And some small food service businesses, franchise restaurants and farms are ineligible to deduct food donations because of restrictions in the tax code.

        “We all learned in church that it's better to give than to receive,” Mr. McConnell said. “Unfortunately, at the IRS the motto seems to be "It's better to throw away than to give away.'”

        Mr. McConnell's bill would allow a fair-market deduction for donated food and expand the deduction to additional businesses that take the time and expense to donate surplus food.

        William E. Henderson of the Northern Kentucky Harvest food bank in Covington said the current tax code has made it difficult for the needy to receive donated food.

        He said that when a company-owned restaurant franchise donates food it can receive a deduction. But if the restaurant is owned by a franchisee the deduction cannot be taken.

        “As a result, many homeless and less fortunate people went without food,” Mr. Henderson said.

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