Too Good to Go: Order Take-Out and End World Hunger?

As a server, I clear plate after plate of almost completely uneaten meals regularly. It’s sad, but the majority of people have eyes bigger than their stomachs. This means that billions of tons of food a year end up in the trash rather than people’s tummies.

With nearly 13% of the world population not receiving enough adequate food to lead a healthy lifestyle, there must be more done to help the one out of nine undernourished people in the world.

A new app currently working in Denmark and the UK is focused on ending the worldwide epidemic of wasted food. Too Good to Go, was founded by two friends in 2015, who were passionate about helping to put a stop to pointless waste.

Quick Facts

• Nearly 40% of food product worldwide is wasted. That is 1.3 billion tons each year.
• An estimated 28% of agricultural land used for food never makes it to our plate.
• Wasted food rotting in landfills produces pollutants 100x more potent than carbon dioxide.
• 20% of UK greenhouse gas emissions are directly related to food production.
• Food thrown out in Europe, USA, and Asia could feed the world three times over.
• Western/Wealthy countries annually waste the entire net food production of sub-saharan Africa.
• Specifically, food wasted in Europe could feed 200 million people.
• Saving all edible food from waste would be the same as taking one in every four cars off the road.

Too Good to Go partners with restaurants, cafes and bakeries to allow customers to buy perfectly delicious and edible food that would otherwise have met its garbage can demise.

For as little at £2 and a maximum of £3.80, users can put in a food order for pick-up only order – sorry to delivery here – and grab it an hour before the restaurant closes for the night.

You aren’t allowed to pick specific meals, but rather get a sense of what the restaurant has to provide; pastries, sushi, sandwiches. The food is all packaged in eco-friendly sugarcane boxes that are 100% recyclable. Show your receipt when you arrive and receive a TGTG box to fill up with all the goodies the restaurant would otherwise throw out.

Too Good to Go’s mission, to save food, save money, and save the planet is currently in the works to operate in six more countries and could help to prevent up to 200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.

The app also allows you to make donations for food to be purchased and provided for those less fortunate. Too Good to Go has already helped to provide thousands of meals to those in need.

Hopefully in the coming months this amazing food and recycling initiative will make its way over to Australia and the US!

Here is a list of more 21 inspiring initiatives helping to end food waste around the world. Do you know of any other organizations? Let us know below!