Today we meet Larissa Gerhard, Marketing Specialist at Too Good To Go Switzerland. As a purpose-driven business, we are pleased to put the spotlight on other businesses with purpose at their core – like Too Good To Go, a movement against food waste. With their free app they connect users with delicious unsold food from bakeries, hotels, restaurants, supermarkets and other food businesses. Read on to learn more about the harmful effects of food waste on our environment and how hotels and other businesses can reduce their impact by saving their food.
Dear Larissa, thank you so much for taking the time for this MA people meets. To begin with: can you please let us and our readers know what the driving purpose of Too Good To Go is and how it all started?
We dream of a planet with no food waste. Hence, our mission is to inspire and empower everyone to take action against food waste, together. Back in 2015, five students in Denmark founded Too Good To Go and saved their first meal in Copenhagen. Today, Too Good To Go is the world's number 1 app for fighting food waste and present in 14 European countries and soon in the USA. The adventure of Too Good To Go in Switzerland began in June 2018. As of June 30, 2020, the Too Good To Go app in Switzerland has accumulated more than twice as many registered users and companies as in the previous year. Together they saved over 1.3 million meals in Switzerland, cumulatively almost four times the number of the previous year.
Can you tell our readers a bit more about food waste? Any facts most people just don’t know about?
There is food lost or wasted all along the supply chain from farm to fork. And it’s not just the food itself that goes to waste, it’s all the resources that went into making it, from water to land and labour. When wasted, food has a harmful effect on the environment - it’s responsible for 8% of the global greenhouse gas emissions! We need to rediscover our respect for food, and the resources that went into producing it - the land, water, and labour.
The food waste that we deal with here at Too Good To Go is all the delicious, perfectly edible food that stores, hotels and restaurants have to throw out at the end of the day. This can range from bakeries that need to bake freshly everyday to supermarkets that have groceries that weren’t sold and hotels or restaurants that didn’t sell all the food they had catered for that day. Our job is to be sure that no food is wasted.
Many of our readers are hoteliers, working in hospitality businesses or for innovative brands: HOW can they make their contribution to reduce food waste? What are your main tips?
Hotels constantly face challenges in forecasting the often unpredictable demand. This can lead to massive amounts of food being wasted, when kitchens over-produce and buffets overfill. In general, we advise to avoid over-ordering and overstocking as well as over-preparation, overfilled buffets and incorrect and oversized portions.
Other than that it is advisable to prepare residues, repurpose ingredients and allow customers to take home their own leftovers. One answer can be to safely repurpose these leftovers near the end of the shift and generate revenue from new potential customers through the Too Good To Go app. Everyday the users of our app save delicious food from more than 1,300 hotels across Europe.
Besides Too Good To Go: are there any other businesses or organisations that can support our readers in becoming more sustainable and making a positive impact?
Of course, there is more than one organisation using business as a force for good. Amongst other things, Too Good To Go is featured as a Europe-wide solution by “Zero Waste Europe”, a movement of communities, local leaders, businesses, experts, influencers and other “change agents” working towards the vision of eliminating waste in our society.
We at MA people are specialised in crafting innovative hotel concepts and brands: what makes a hotel experience a truly outstanding one for you personally?
For me personally, it is extremely important that the hotel is authentic and offers a complete package. This means that the hotel concept is not only based on the needs of the guests, but also takes into account and respects sustainability and the environment in which the hotel is located. As a hotel guest it gives me the great feeling that the hotel is making an effort to contribute to a sustainable planet. For example an intelligent water and energy supply system, recycled raw materials or the consideration of local businesses for the purchase of food. This naturally includes fighting food waste.
About Too Good To Go:
More than one-third of all food produced worldwide is thrown away. Convinced that all food that is produced should also be consumed, the Danish company Too Good To Go has been fighting against food waste since 2016 with its app. The free app connects users with bakeries, hotels, restaurants, supermarkets and other food businesses. Users can see in the app which businesses nearby offer surplus food, save it at a reduced price and pick up “Magic Bags” at a specified time. Users get delicious meals at a great price, businesses reach new customers and recover sunk costs, and the planet has less wasted food to deal with - it’s a win-win-win. The movement is currently active in 14 European countries and was launched in Switzerland in the summer of 2018. Over 48,000 businesses are already on the platform, over 2,700 of them in Switzerland. More about Too Good To Go at https://toogoodtogo.ch. Beyond the app, Too Good To Go has introduced the label "often good after" for products with best-before dates together with various producers to make the difference between expiration dates clear. Find out more HERE.
Add new comment