A New App Targets Food Waste

This could be the best Valentine’s Day present ever, preventing millions of meals from being wasted and feeding hungry mouths.

Postmates has started a program called FoodFight! in Los Angeles, Detroit and now in Nashville to reduce the amount of wasted food. It’­s rather simple: The program allows restaurants to request a driver to pick up leftovers and drop them off at local shelters to feed those who are food insecure. Drivers for Postmates who pick up the leftovers are paid just as they are for a normal delivery.

Many restaurants throughout the country deliver their unsold food to shelters, and we have reported on that before, but the problem is that at the end of a long day, when employees and owners are exhausted and just want to get home, too often their plans are foiled because life and sleep get in the way. This Postmates program is a smart idea where everyone wins: the restaurants who want to do good, the food banks and shelters, the hungry—and Postmates is smart in rewarding the drivers for doing good.

Emily Slade, Working Not Working’s head of growth and FoodFight! ambassador, says, “If we can eliminate friction in the donation process by making it as easy as calling Postmates to make the food donation delivery, then we can really make an impact.” 

It’s also a perfect program for grocerants to become involved in. For more information, just send an email and let them know you want to help fight food waste and feed the hungry.