Food belongs on a plate!
In Germany, around 18 million tonnes of food are thrown away every year according to a WWF study. Next to supermarkets, restaurants and hotels also have many leftovers at the end of the day which they can’t serve again. This is were Too Good To Go comes in.
When an idea meets a social need or offers a solution to a problem, it has the potential to succeed. However, you also need people who just make the idea happen. Food waste is a problem that many people find to be inacceptable. Food-sharing initiatives have emerged and food boards provide meals for those who often lack the financial means for a sufficient and healthy diet. Food rescuers are building networks in cities and communities. All of these people can’t accept any longer that a large amount of food, around 30 percent of the crop of agricultural land, later end up in the bin.
Until 2016, there was no solution in Germany for an industry where food is left over and ends up as waste: Businesses where meals are served or sold every day. In 2016, the ecosocial enterprise Too Good To Go was founded in Germany to develop an app that allows to buy leftover food from restaurants, cafés, bakeries, supermarkets and hotels. The food can then be collected within an hour before closing time, and the packaging is environment-friendly.
Too Good To Go now employs 70 people in Germany and around 750 people internationally. Which leads us to the company's founding history. In Denmark, a team of five, all in their mid to late 20s and all working in commerce, came up with the idea of developing an app that brings together parties interested in giving and parties interested in receiving food.
But still, any good idea has to find its way out into the world. When Too Good To Go applied for the German Ecodesign Award in 2017, the small German team managed to convince the jury and won the prize in the service category. Ever since, the award is displayed on the homepage.
