Goodr's CEO on Food Donations: 'Technology Was The Game Changer'

As the holidays quickly approach, many people are finding ways to donate and give back to their communities. Some choose to donate clothes, while others donate to their local food bank, but one Atlanta-based startup is helping restaurants give back year round. 

According to a survey by the American Dairy Association Mideast, the average American throws out more than 250 pounds of food each year. When used effectively, this food could go towards feeding families across the nation.
Goodr is looking to change these statistics through blockchain technology.

Goodr is a platform that manages food waste and allows restaurants to donate their surplus food to those in need. The business-to-business company’s mission is to “feed more, waste less.” 

“It’s like Uber Eats in reverse,” Goodr Founder and CEO Jasmine Crowe said.

Goodr provides food waste analytics by tracking the amount of food rescued, the dollar amount of tax savings a company will receive once its surplus food is donated and the donation’s community impact through the platform’s dashboard.

Messages that are sent through the app signals employees to pick up the food and take the donations to local nonprofits.

Founded in 2017, Crowe said she’s proud her company has been able to recover more than 1 million pounds of surplus food since its inception. The company also recently helped hip-hop producer Mike Will Made It and I Will Survive, Inc. serve Thanksgiving meals to seniors and veterans in the city.

Before starting Goodr, Crowe spent years volunteering to feed people in her community and realized that many companies were not donating their surplus food to food banks. Crowe decided that there needed to be a more effective way to analyze food data.

“Technology was the game changer,” Crowe said. “A lot of food gets donated to banks, but it wasn’t being tracked.”  

Goodr is active in Raleigh, N.C., Durham N.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Miami and Seattle. Crowe said the company is currently expanding and hopes to be in 20 cities by 2020.

“There’s so much work that needs to be done,” Crowe said. 

In the meantime, Goodr was able to donate thousands of pounds of surplus food from the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to people in need before Thanksgiving.