Photo courtesy @TooGoodtoGo.usa
Fans of National Public Radio’s “How I built this” with Guy Raz recently heard the tale of French entrepreneur Lucie Basch and her food waste reduction app called Too Good to Go, which enables restaurants and grocery stores to sell leftover items in ‘surprise bags’ at a significantly reduced price.
She spoke with Raz about how her Danish for-profit social-impact company, since launching in 2016, raised more than $30 million dollars and expanded to 17 countries, including the U.S. And that’s where we come in, Dallas.
Wednesday (May 17) the app launched in the Dallas, Houston and San Antonio markets.
Eataly Dallas at NorthPark Center, owned by a Preston Hollow family, is one of the local businesses already signed up on the app, according to a press release.
Partners on the Too Good To Go app pack their surplus food into the surprise bags (because the nature of food waste is unpredictable) that are sold to the customer at a third of the retail value. Partners select pickup windows that work best for their business and can provide or instruct customers to bring packaging to transport the food items, according to the launch announcement.
Too Good To Go U.S. Country Director Chris MacAulay says the company aspires to make reducing food waste easier for all.
Approximately 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food is wasted in the U.S. each year, he says, adding that 15% of all habitable land on earth is used to produce the food we waste. “This equates to the surface area of 14 states of Texas.
“Together, with the great restaurant community and residents in Texas, we know we will have an immediate impact,” he says.
The Too Good To Go app is available for iOS download in the Apple App Store and Google Play for Android.
With more partners added weekly, consumers are encouraged to check back often to see what new stores and categories have joined. To date some 450 restaurants and grocers have enrolled statewide (mostly in Austin, a pilot city for the program.)
Learn more about Too Good To Go plus tips to reduce food waste on Instagram @TooGoodToGo.usa.
