Too Good To Go: A New App Fighting Food Waste In the District
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By Chloe Gavigan
The holiday season is coming into full swing and with that comes family gatherings, gift-giving, and…food waste.
It is estimated that Americans throw away more food from Thanksgiving to New Year's than any other time of year, about 25% more. That extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week.
“Washington DC is known for its die-hard foodies, which makes it a perfect fit for Too Good To Go. Almost a year after expanding to the District we’ve seen tremendous support. We’re so grateful to our community in DC for joining our mission and fighting food waste with us on a daily basis.”
But there’s an app for that, and it can help. Too Good To Go, is an app that is a marketplace for surplus food and on a mission to inspire and empower everyone to take action against food waste.
Here’s how it works: The Too Good to Go mobile app connects grocery stores, restaurants, bakeries, cafes and eateries that have food that will be discarded to customers. Customers can browse participating locations, reserve and pay for a ‘Surprise Bag’ on the app.
A sample of offering from Too Good To Go from DC restaurants. Photo by Chloe Gavigan.
The next step: The customer heads to the store during the pick-up window, which is based on each location’s closing time. The contents of each Surprise Bag vary daily and app users can expect to get a range of products at one-third of the retail value—from a bag of fresh fruit and vegetables, three pizza slices or a couple of extra sushi rolls, to a pint of gelato or an assortment of pastries. Moreover, stores can update the amount of surplus they have in real-time, based on how sales are going throughout the day.
“Since launching in Washington, DC in March 2021, Too Good To Go users have saved over 36,000 meals from being wasted. With 200+ local partners in the DMV including RASA, Fresh Baguette, PAUL, Taim, South Block, Moby Dick House of Kabob, Chaia Tacos and PLANT Burger - it’s become easy and delicious to reduce food waste.”
Food waste contributes to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but picking up just one Surprise Bag is equivalent to reducing the carbon footprint of charging one smartphone fully 422 times. The app gives consumers an easy way to live sustainably, store owners a chance to profit from fresh food that would otherwise be tossed, and everyone the opportunity to help the planet. Too Good To Go calls it a win-win-win for the planet, people and businesses.
Too Good To Go is a certified B corporation created out of the dream of no food wasted. And every day is spent on making that a reality. Our app is the most direct way for you to get involved - just download, log on, and get saving perfectly good, surplus food from your local stores. It’s always a surprise, at a great price, and an instant good deed for the planet. Get started now and read more at toogoodtogo.org
Too Good To Go enlisted American University’s Public Relations Portfolio Course where they became the students’ client. This Fall 2021 semester, American University seniors Iman Bakayoko, Ethan Beacher, Chloe Gavigan, Julia Hook, Talia Scharf and Isabel Wolff worked alongside Too Good To Go to promote the app’s mission in the Nation’s Capital.
