The Do Goodrs: Fighting Hunger In A Time of Crisis
The good in Goodr can easily be attributed to the immense amount of impact the company has had on the communities they serve, but it also describes Goodr’s Founder, Jasmine Crowe.
It’s with her good intentions that Jasmine is now, more than ever, motivated to end hunger by reducing food waste. Her Atlanta-based company, Goodr fights food waste and food insecurity by picking up surplus foods from local restaurants and stores and delivering them to hungry families.
In 2019, R/GA Ventures selected Goodr as one of the companies to participate in our R/GA Innovation Academy with Kinship at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Almost a year later, Goodr is now in the heroic position of helping those in need due to the pandemic causing mass unemployment and panic food-buying in the US. Its rapid escalation left many poverty-stricken, with limited access to food.
Goodr has organized pop-up grocery stores that allow people in need to shop for fresh produce and other items, free of charge. Most recently, Jasmine and her team have partnered with the Atlanta Hawks Foundation and State Farm, hosting nine different pop-up grocery stores in the Atlanta metro area. More than 500 families and seniors received free food.
In late April, Goodr also partnered with Mailchimp for an initiative providing free weekly groceries for all custodians and food service workers at hospitals in Atlanta.
Despite all of Goodr’s efforts, Jasmine knows that millions more across the US are still going hungry, and is calling on government leaders for national reform to fix our food waste problem.
“Once this is all over, I think there should be better access to programs for food, especially for seniors and families with children. I also hope that everyone in America will be more vigilant to the plight of hunger in this country and support legislation that prevents perfectly good food from going to waste,” says Jasmine.
One of the critical principles Jasmine has and continues to shed light on in many interviews and even a TEDTalk is that food insecurity is a logistics problem.
“The pandemic has shown me that my words couldn’t have been more true. With people having to shelter in place, limited hours in stores, and so much more, the logistics of getting food to people has been vital in these times. We’ve used our technology to introduce a grocery delivery program helping thousands shelter in place each week. We also worked with Atlanta Public Schools to deliver meals to students — none of this would have been possible without logistics.”
Jasmine has expressed interest in expanding her pop-up grocery store initiatives to more cities that have also been heavily impacted by the pandemic such as New York City, San Francisco, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, and Nashville.
For their next stop, Goodr will be traveling to New Orleans, launching two pop-up grocery stores and their senior delivery program in partnership with the New Orleans Pelicans, Brandon Ingram, and the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission.
“People are driven to our authenticity and our mission to serve with dignity. Our company has been shaped by real-life experiences, and we’re deeply connected with the communities we serve. I’ve learned that how you lead truly inspires, we have created a company of Do Goodrs who are inspired to feed the world. I am happy to be leading them during this time and join me on a journey to end hunger!”
To learn more about Goodr and its current initiatives, follow @TheGoodrCo on Twitter, or visit www.goodr.co.
