Jun18

‘there is food for everyone on this planet, but not everyone eats.’ – carlo petrini

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a Too Good To Go bag from Give Thanks Bakery

Americans waste a lot of food, but an app that recently expanded to Metro Detroit is aiming to get that food on plates and out of landfills. The United States throws away approximately 120 billion pounds of food a year, according to Recycle Track Systems. The bulk of that waste comes from homes, followed closely by restaurants, grocery stores, and food service companies.

Too Good To Go partners with restaurants to help the eateries sell surplus food to customers at a discount. It’s pretty simple – the restaurants list surprise bags on the app that customers can claim for a small fee and pick up during a specified time. The app is open to restaurants, grocery stores, and food suppliers. Currently, nearly 80 Metro Detroit businesses have signed up for Too Good to Go.

Surprise bags in Metro Detroit typically range from $3.99 to $6.99, and could contain anything from entrees and baked goods to ingredients used at the restaurant. Customers can expect to pay about ⅓ of what the items would have cost at full price. Baked goods are the most popular category of leftover food, but any unsold food item could end up in your bag.

“It’s really fun for the customer,” said Too Good to Go spokesperson Sarah Soteroff, referring to the surprise that comes with each bag. She said the variety “reflects the unpredictability of food waste.” Since the Detroit launch, the app is now also open to restaurants statewide.

According to the Michigan Sustainable Business Forum, food is the most prominent waste in the state’s landfills. That waste is bad for the environment, the economy, and people in need. Food waste is responsible for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Additionally, about 25% worth of freshwater is used annually to produce food that gets wasted. These food losses amount to around $1.1 trillion lost annually. Beyond the environmental and economic issues, this food is going to waste while millions of people go hungry.

Too Good To Go got its start in Coppenhagen in 2016. It then launched in the U.S. in 2020, and it is now active in 30 cities across 17 states. Soteroff said the app has helped save about 330 million meals worldwide, with 12 million saved in the U.S. alone. According to Soteroff, since Too Good To Go expanded to Michigan, around 3,200 meals that otherwise would have ended up in the trash have been saved.

Beyond keeping food out of the trash, Soteroff said using the app helps both participating businesses and customers financially. Participating businesses are charged a small fee to use the app. Through the app, Soteroff said these businesses have been able to earn an estimated $39 million from food sold through the app that otherwise would have ended up in a dumpster. Meanwhile, she said customers have saved about $120 million by purchasing discounted food through the app. Once you make your first Too Good To Go purchase, the app tells you how much you’ve saved compared to retail price.

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 “imagine walking out of a grocery store with four bags of groceries, dropping one in the parking lot,

and just not bothering to pick it up. that’s essentially what we’re doing.”

– Dana Gunders, Food & Agriculture Scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

 

 

 

 

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souce credits: amber ainsworth, fox 2 news, recycle track systems

62 responses »

  3. I think the time is perfect. Could have been sooner (it’s about time!)but really now is the perfect time. It’s pitiful how much food ends in dumps while real people go to bed hungry. Distribution is a key component. Blessed be apps like these. Thanks for sharing. Wonderful good news.

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  7. Sounds like a good idea! But it’s not good enough. (I just backspaced and erased what I wanted to say about the FOOD industry.) But I am glad you brought this program to attention.
    Wasting food and the cost of food are two different topics. Food has become a luxury in many households.

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  8. What’s wonderful idea – I remember days managing a bakery cafe, we had a food that was wasted that could go to help people. It’s all about finding a way to get it to people who can use it. Peace.

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  9. We have a major supermarket that sells half-price surprise bags. They also sell mis-shapen vegetables at cheap prices, the ones that people won’t select because they don’t look quite right.
    Best wishes, Pete.

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  12. I remember my wife’s family had a long history of shopping for the “day old” bread and baked goods from the outlets that regularly provided the deep discounts on those still good products. Great to see people applying creativity to the distribution of food.

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  17. It is terrible how much food gets thrown away, not only in the US. In 1999 in Austria, they founded an institution called Table Austria. Only in a few years, they were able to save food from restaurants and supermarkets and share it throughout the country with people who can barely afford their daily meals. This is so amazing!

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  18. I love creative ideas like this that solve problems. It reminds of those travel websites where you don’t find out the hotel until you book the reservation. The payoff is the rate is cheaper than usual.

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    • Yes, sadly there are some who have none and others who have way too much. The trick is to move it from the ones who have too much from the ones who don’t have enough, the ongoing struggle.

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  23. won‘t read all the comments, so maybe I‘m repeating things. just to say that we have this system in switzerland for a long time already, mostly baked goods, bread, etc. on the other hand, shops sell their unsold goods a short while before closing for up to 50% of their initial price. What is then still unsold, goes often packed up in the bins, not locked away but ‚open‘ to who needs food and one can read articles everywhere about the poor (yes we have them too) who get their proteins and whatnot.
    We also have ‚Tischlein deck dich‘ and other ‚feeding places‘ where kind ppl take in unsold produce and pack it up into ‚variety packs‘ for the needy. I‘m always surprised to see the LONG queues in the evening. We weren‘t aware that so much need is visible here in golden switzerland!
    The one thing that bothers me about that ‚yester-new‘ experience is that the prices for these old breads, baked good, sandwiches, salads etc are still too high. it seems you can only get ppl to sell them if you pay them a correct salary which, in turn, prohibits many to buy ‚old‘ stuff.

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  25. What a great idea! I grew up in the South of Germany in an area that used to be rather poor. Swabians are known for being frugal so food waste was frowned upon and they made it an art form to use up left overs. I also grew up with my grandmother around. Europes war time generation remembered hunger for the rest of their lives. My grandparents never wasted food and that is something they instilled in me. Have a great day and thanks for sharing. 🦋

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  27. I love this idea. Years ago grocery stores in the uk started selling ’ugly’ produce for cheap. If produce isn’t aesthetically pleasing it is thrown away. This was a way of making produce available to all budgets. Forward thinking ideas like this need to be picked up everywhere!

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