Too Good To Go helps redistribute unused food to people instead of throwing it away.
At the end of last month, I published a story with DoorDash executive Cheryl Young. Towards the end of the interview, she mentioned the startup’s work with Project DASH. Launched in 2018, the initiative exists to “[focus] on tackling the problems of hunger and food waste in the local communities we serve.” According to Young, Project DASH has delivered some 60 million meals in the last five years to people spanning the United States and Canada who experience food insecurity.
Food insecurity is accessibility in the truest sense of the word. It can be particularly sensitive to many in the disability community for a host of reasons. The most obvious of which is cost; it’s no secret that disabled people are, by and large, relegated to live impoverished. Food costs, especially in times of inflation, can be exorbitant. Likewise, getting to a brick-and-mortar grocery store may well be logistically impossible due to health and/or mobility concerns. It’s also true having limited access to food may be detrimental not merely because a person lacks basic sustenance, but also because certain medications work only when taken with food. Without it, those drugs may cease to work as effectively, if at all.
Founded in 2016 in Copenhagen by five entrepreneurs, the team at Too Good To Go is trying to curb food insecurity around the globe by fighting food waste.
On its website, Too Good To Go (henceforth abbreviated as TGTG) reports 2.8 billion tons of food is wasted every year. The app, available on iOS and Android, features a number of partner businesses—bakeries, supermarkets, and restaurants—nearest a user’s location that are giving away so-called “Surprise Bags” of unsold food. Rather than perfectly good food wasting away in a waste basket somewhere, TGTG users can stop by said businesses and pick up the food for themselves. The app’s UI is similar to those of on-demand food delivery services like the aforementioned DoorDash, UberEats, and Postmates. Users are able to see which places are available, what they may get, and then sign up to pick up the items at a designated time. The app is free, and people pay only when they request one of the Surprise Bags. Notable partners of TGTG include Eataly and Blue Bottle Coffee.
To date, TGTG boasts 4.2 million users and 9,790 businesses on its platform. Earlier this month, the company put out a press release wherein it was announced they are carbon neutral and have saved 100 million bags in the last seven years.
“Our model works so well because it’s simple. By using the app, businesses recoup some revenue from food loss and waste, consumers eat great food for less, and everyone can help to lower the harmful impacts of food waste on the environment,” Chris MacAulay, TGTG’s United States country manager, said to me in an interview earlier this month conducted over email. “The Surprise Bag element is unique to Too Good To Go and reflects the unpredictable nature of food waste. All food in our Surprise Bags is safe to eat and the same that was on the shelf being sold for full price just minutes before. We encourage all food selling businesses—from gas station convenience stores to high-end grocery stores—to join and start making money off of their surplus food today.”
In celebrating Earth Day this year, the team at TGTG is focused on an awareness campaign about the issue of food waste and, pertinently for Earth Day, how essentially recycling food not only serves humanity—it serves the planet too.
In terms of feedback, MacAulay said it’s generally positive. He was keen to emphasize the element of surprise to how TGTG works. The Surprise Bags are a bit like opening presents on Christmas morning: you never really know what’s in the bag, so there’s always some anticipatory suspense when one gets the food home. MacAulay said there’s a sizable and vibrant community of TGTG users, on social media and in online forums, who regularly share pictures and other details about their latest haul. “Our community of users are empowered to make a difference as this is a concrete, simple action to take that makes a difference in the climate crisis,” he said. “Saving a Surprise Bag is very tangible— right there in front of you is the food that would have gone to waste had you not saved it.”
To reiterate an earlier point, what compels about TGTG is not just the environmental aspect of reusing food. It’s fundamentally about feeding people, and the reality is many from marginalized and underserved communities don’t have a steady stream of food flowing into their mouths. For a person with a disability, TGTG may truly be an assistive technology if using the app means they have food they otherwise would miss out on due to cost or travel or an inability to meal prep. Accessibility, in tech and in life, takes many forms. TGTG is but one.
MacAulay reemphasized the food insecurity and food waste problems. “Food waste and food insecurity are both signs of a broken food system, and addressing one can help fight the other,” he said. He added the company sees their work as complementary to conventional organizations such as food banks. TGTG wants only to supplement their work, not divert valuable goods away from them.
As to the future, MacAulay said the company’s ambitions are to eventually extend their reach beyond the seventeen countries in which they operate today. According to MacAulay, they have their sight set on being available on three different continents, already establishing a presence in Europe and North America. In the meantime, however, he said TGTG is concentrating on “growing our operations in the United States” and adding the company’s ambition is “high.”
