App aims to help end food waste in Calgary

More than 100 stores across Canada have already signed up, but Calgary is the first city in Alberta to join a growing movement to help cut down on food waste at restaurants, bakeries and grocery stores.

It's being done through a mobile app called Too Good To Go, which helps connect users with surprise bags of surplus food products that would have otherwise gone into the garbage.

The food is still good to eat and the best thing is prices for the packages are one-third the regular price.

Executives with the company say a number of Calgary businesses have already signed up and they are "floored" by how well it is being received so far.

"Our partners are at the frontline of the fight against food waste," said Sam Kashani, country manager for Too Good To Go. "They know more than anyone how important it is to eliminate waste and how crushing it can be financially and emotionally to discard food that was lovingly prepared."

So far, users of the app can access deals from Chunk'd Cookies, Lena's Italian Market, Artigano, Hoopla Doughnuts and from the Teatro Group, Al Forno and Holy Cow.

Kashani says more stores are being added to their database on a daily basis.

FOOD WASTE PROBLEM

While offering food to customers at rock-bottom prices is one advantage of the app, the company says its main goal is to help businesses and consumers come together to fight food waste.

Too Good To Go says 58 per cent of perfectly good food goes to waste each year in Canada and, due to many of the issues highlighted during the pandemic, people are making positive changes toward bringing that number down.

The company is also helping support the Calgary Food Bank through donations users can make through the app.

All of that money goes to help the food bank and the charity is welcoming the added support.

"These days, it’s hard to turn around without seeing a headline about supply chain issues or rising food prices. Over the past few months, the Calgary Food Bank has seen first-hand how this has increased the number of people requesting emergency food hampers," said the Calgary Food Bank's food industry supervisor Avaleen Streeton.

"While 77 per cent of all the food we receive is rescued from the food industry, we know that there is a lot more excess food out there. We are excited to team up with Too Good To Go as their charity partner in their quest to connect Calgarians with businesses to help reduce food waste."

Too Good To Go is available for download on the Apple Store and Google Play.