Meat+Poultry - June 2018 - 8

C O M M E N TA R Y

Rescuing food
During the early 1990s, I worked in
restaurant management, including a
stint at a regional bakery-café chain
that sold drool-worthy fresh pastries,
quiches and rich soups that lured
diners to line up at the front door well
before operating hours. At that time
the chain consisted of a few dozen
company-owned stores. Part of the
manager's role at each store was to
unlock the back door so employees
could roll hundreds of leftover pastries,
desserts and loaves of bread and
gallons of soup to a nearby dumpster.
As managers, we were not given any
direction or options about how this
food could be utilized to feed the
hungry and homeless in the giant
metropolitan areas they served. There
were whispers among managers that
any arrangements made by individual
restaurants to donate the food would
expose the company to liability
lawsuits or that donations might allow
the unauthorized resale of products.
Thankfully, systems to stop leftover
food from becoming dumpster filler at
that eatery and foodservice operations
around the country are in place to more
effectively address the opportunity to
convert would-be trash to sustenance
for those in need. It is more than a little
heartening to see problem solvers like

Jasmine Crowe attack an issue like this
head-on and make a difference in the
lives of people in need of hope.
Crowe formerly worked as a
freelance philanthropy consultant,
but more recently has focused her
attention on food insecurity. About 18
months ago, Crowe launched Goodr, a
food-waste solutions company utilizing
an app to identify surplus food that is
available from companies and redirect
it to nonprofit organizations and people
who otherwise wouldn't be able to eat
or feed their families. Having launched
the program in Atlanta, donating
organizations include the Georgia
World Congress Center, the HartsfieldJackson Atlanta International Airport
and Turner Broadcasting Systems.
Goodr works with the United Way of
Greater Atlanta to facilitate delivery
of the food to the areas in the metro
where it is needed most.
As of this past month, Goodr claims
to have rescued upwards of 1 million
lbs. of food from the trash and created
more than 850,000 meals for recipient
groups that assist the city's homeless as
well as senior citizens living in lowincome housing.
As I can attest from my restaurant
days when loaves of bread that were
sold for upwards of $3 just before
closing time were relegated to trash
minutes later, a food shortage is not the
root of the problem in most cases.
"Hunger is not a scarcity issue,"
Crowe said in a story published in Fast
Company this past month. "There's
more than enough food. It's actually

a logistics issue." Goodr addresses
the issue by allowing food-flushed
companies to use its app to notify a
growing network of organizations that
they have a food surplus. With Uber-like
efficiency, drivers are matched with
the donator's location and directed to
nearby partner agencies.
Goodr's service is not free to
participating companies, with monthly
fees that are based on between
$2,500 and $15,000, but Crowe
estimates companies realize $14 in tax
deductions and saved costs for every
$1 in fees they spend. Goodr utilizes a
blockchain-based system of traceability
of the transactions and the app
provides a dashboard to keep track of
each participating company's donations
so they can estimate tax savings related
to lowering its environmental impact
and how much lower its trash disposal
fees can be.
To date, Goodr's revenues total
about $30,000 per month, and Crowe
is gaining financial momentum from
business incubating organizations to
fund its growth. With a goal of raising
$1 million, Crowe plans to expand the
program to other cities in need, such
as Chicago, Las Vegas, Orlando and
Washington, DC.
In an era when food waste is
too often perceived as the result of
consumers' eyes being too big for their
stomachs, it is gratifying to realize how
food companies can play a prominent
role in a solution led by people whose
hearts are bulging.
J O E L C R E WS, E D I TO R | j c r e w s @ s o s l a n d .c o m

"Hunger is not a scarcity issue.There's more
than enough food. It's actually a logistics issue."
- JASMINE CROWE

8

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