The combined profits of Australia’s two biggest supermarket chains in a single year are enough to feed more than 1.5 million needy children, a Greens-affiliated think tank says.

The analysis by the Green Institute is being used to bolster its case for a New York-style chain of government-owned supermarkets selling cheap groceries.

The institute noted the combined profits of Coles and Woolworths in 2025/26 was $5.3 billion, based on earnings in the companies’ supermarkets divisions before interest and tax.

By comparison, the institute said there were between 757,000 and one million children living in poverty across Australia, depending on the measure used.

“The total cost of feeding these children for a year, based on an average cost of around $60 a week, ranges between $2.5 billion and $3.3 billion,” it said.

The institute added the retail giants’ profits had surged by 58 and 41 per cent respectively since 2019. In the same time, real wages had declined by 6 per cent.

A poll commissioned by the think tank found one in five parents in Australia had sent their children to school without enough to eat in the last 12 months.

Green Institute executive director Max Chandler-Mather said the research supported the think tank’s recently announced push to establish a government-owned supermarket chain.

“What kind of political and economic system lets kids starve while supermarket bosses get filthy rich?” the former federal Greens MP said.

“Coles and Woolies are making record profits and it’s pushing more and more Aussie families into poverty with rising prices.”

The plan would involve the Commonwealth buying 200 Coles and Woolworths stores and opening more than 400 extra shop-fronts.

The average four-person household would save $60 a week, or $3134 a year, according to the Green Institute’s report, which proposes that the supermarkets sell eggs, milk, fruit, vegetables, meat and cheese at about two-thirds of their current prices.

The plan would cost $25.1 billion over five years, based on its modelling.

David Shoebridge, who earlier in October took over as federal Greens leader, said the public supermarkets policy merited discussion.

It’s an extension of a policy spearheaded by popular democratic socialist New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is piloting five city-owned grocery stores across the Big Apple with the same objective.

-AAP