Social Impact Focus
Access to Capital & Enabling Giving
There are plenty of companies, applications, and more that currently exist as solutions for giving back. Some application examples include:
Spotfund, ItsDeductible, One Today, Feedie, Donate a Photo, Charity Miles, Walk for a Dog
Another example includes volunteering in person. Some ways one can volunteer include:
Fix and serve meals
Tutor a student
Visit a senior center
Coach a local youth team
Serve on a community board
Organize a food co-op
An opportunity I see? An app that gives back in your community specifically. My proposed solution- a food redistribution app. An app that focuses on redistributing a business’s unused food that would otherwise be thrown away at the end of the day.
In the United States, food waste is estimated between 30 and 40% of food supply. This estimate, based on estimates from USDA’s Economic Research Service of 31% food loss at the retail and consumer levels, corresponded to approximately 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food in 2010.
www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/faqs.htm
What experience led to this idea? An act of kindness.
I was working on school work in a local coffee shop in Denver. Once closing time approached, I packed up my things. I said, “Thank you” as I was about to head out the door when a woman behind the counter yelled, “Wait!” I turned around, “Come here,” she said. I walked up to the counter and she asked me what kind of pastry I wanted. “What? That’s so nice! Wow!” “Well, we throw them away at the end of the night anyway so I thought I’d make someone’s day. I’m glad that happened,” she said.
This got me thinking…how many companies around the United States throw away their unused food everyday? Is there an easy way to redistribute this waste to people who need it?
Some similar existing companies include:
Boulder Food Rescue- helps businesses identify food that would otherwise have been thrown away and diverts it, via bicycle, to day shelters and food pantries. To date, they have diverted more than 1.2 million pounds of food from landfills to hungry bellies in Boulder, Colorado.
City Harvest- the world’s first food rescue organization. In 2016, they collected over 55 million pounds of excess food from restaurants, grocers, bakeries, manufacturers, and farms and deliver it free of charge to 500 community food programs across the city of New York.
Food Rescue- an app that helps connect fresh usable excess food with hunger relief organizations who serve America’s food insecure population
How is my app different?
GOALS-
To connect fresh usable excess food with hunger relief organizations locally.
Volunteer to be a food distributor (as a company and/or “food runner”).
As a company, sign up through the app and a person will come (at the end of the night or whenever food should be collected pertaining to your company) take your food to a local shelter or place in need. As a company you can also volunteer to be your own food runner.
As a volunteer, sign up through the app and be a food runner, transporting unused food to local places in need.
As a donator, sign up through the app and donate towards the cause of food distribution. All donations will go towards the app’s funding, assisting with transportation of food if needed.
ORGANIZED & EFFORTLESS-
Donating excess food is as easy as clicking a button!
TARGET POPULATION-
App users and local food banks. Referring to app users, volunteers who want to donate food, volunteers who want to distribute food, people who want to donate towards the cause.
FUNDING SOURCES-
Donations: people who want to donate towards the cause.
Non-profit: reinvest all profits back into the app.
Other sources: monthly fundraisers, government grants, kick-starters, etc.
IMPACT — THE WHY
Reduce waste. Feed the hungry. Give back.
