Plain and simple: it’s always a shame to waste food.
Nathan Hammoud, owner and founder of Dessert Oasis, which has four locations across Detroit, said his team takes great care in crafting its cheesecakes, cookies, pastries and other items.
“No matter how much of this product you have, it’s always a shame to see it end up in the trash,” Hammoud said.But an app called “Too Good To Go,” which officially launches in Detroit this week, aims to help food operators like Hammoud avoid potential food waste.
Founded in Copenhagen, Denmark, Too Good To Go connects customers with surplus food companies and provides them with “surprise bags” filled with varying amounts of food nearing its expiration date that would otherwise end up in the trash and ultimately a landfill.
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Too Good To Go was founded in 2015 by a group of entrepreneurs looking for a solution to food waste in Danish buffet restaurants, according to the company’s website.
“Our goal is to save food and to be everywhere,” Too Good To Go spokesperson Sarah Soteroff said. “We launched in Windsor two years ago and have had our eye on Detroit ever since.”
Soteroff said 70 Detroit businesses have signed up to participate.
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The “surprise bags” are priced at about $6-7 each, roughly half the retail price. Quantities, specific items and availability vary.
“As a business owner, this helps me recoup some of the cost of products that would otherwise be thrown away,” Hammoud said.
How to use
The Too Good To Go app allows customers to search their city to see availability and prices at restaurants, cafes and other food outlets. Surplus food isn’t always guaranteed, so not everyone has access to food all the time or every day.
Too Good To Go charges a flat fee of $1.79 per transaction, and participating food businesses pay an annual fee to join.
Hammoud said some days they only have a few bags in stock, while other days they have as many as five.
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Once you select your location and add your payment, you will be told what time you can collect your “surprise bag.”
From there, just go to the location, show the app and receive your “surprise bag.”
Hammoud says things are going well and the response has been good. “Another big motivation was that it would be a shame if more people didn’t have the opportunity to get these products,” he says.
It’s good for business
Cafe Noir was one of the first businesses to sign on with Too Good to Go, and so far, Evan Fay and Asher Van Sickle, owners of the French-inspired cafe in Detroit’s North End, love how the app works, the overall concept and the results.
“People are paying $6 to $7 and getting a huge discount,” Fay said. “It might just be cake and coffee. You don’t know what’s going to come out, but that’s the surprise.”
Van Sickle said as a new business, Too Good To Go gives them the opportunity and exposure to reach customers and let them know they’re open for business.
“If we don’t know we exist, food waste occurs,” Van Sickle said. “Too Good to Go gives us the opportunity to reach potential, future customers who would never have heard of us otherwise, and it saves us some of the food we would have had to throw away.”
Fay said that before the owners contracted with Too Good To Go, items like coffee were thrown out at the end of the day and other items were thrown away because they couldn’t be sold. “We’re always fighting food waste,” Van Sickle said. “There are always going to be food waste because of unexpected things that happen that we can’t predict.”
Van Sickle said that even if the unexpected event is something as simple as a storm or winter storm, food is still packaged and prepared for the day. “Having a service like Too Good To Go come about and help cafes cover the cost of food while at the same time making sure food doesn’t get wasted or sent to landfill is huge,” Van Sickle said.
Fay said Too Good To Go was a perfect fit for the newly opened store, and that not wasting food is something both owners believe in. “It’s so hard to see good product go to waste…it goes in the bin,” Fay said. “I think (Too Good to Go) is a cool concept, especially in a cafe or bakery where you have a change of customers every day. You always have to strike a balance between having everything you serve and not wasting food.”
The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that approximately 30 to 40 percent of the U.S. food supply is wasted in one form or another at the retail or consumer level. According to the USDA’s research division, this amount was a staggering 133 billion pounds of food wasted in 2010, equivalent to $161 billion in food waste.
It’s a win-win because consumers save money on food, food companies recoup some of their costs, and food doesn’t go to waste.
Detroit partners already on board with Too Good To Go include:
Desert Oasis Coffee Roasters Detroit Institute of Bagel Baobab Fair Yam Village Cafe Noir
Billed as a social impact company, Too Good To Go’s mission is “to inspire and empower everyone to join in the joint fight against food waste,” according to its website.
In numbers, Too Good To Go’s global efforts include:
Over 300 million meals saved. 90 million registered users who have downloaded and purchased the app. 155,000 partners who actively save food from waste.
Last Friday, we tried the service, ordering through the app at Cafe Noir in Detroit’s North End. We chose Cafe Noir because it was closest to our office and had a convenient pickup time. The cost was $5.99 (plus tax). Our “surprise bag” included two pieces of chocolate cake with a rich, fudgy frosting and a thin layer of ganache, and an iced coffee. We were pleased with the cakes, coffee, and price.
Businesses interested in participating can visit toogoodtogo.com .
Contact Detroit Free Press food and restaurant writer Susan Selasky and send your food and restaurant news to sselasky@freepress.com Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter Subscribe to the Free Press .
