PORTLAND, Maine — According to Feeding America, each year, 119 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States equalling about 130 billion meals.
Representatives from the app Too Good To Go say the goal is to change that, one meal at a time.
"Unfortunately about 40 percent of food in the U.S. goes to wasteland, actually, global food waste contributes to 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions," Olivia Oliverson, head of marketing for the app, said.
Once you download the app, you can check out which restaurants in your area are offering to-go bags. You get food at a discounted price, and in turn, that business cuts down on wasted food.
The assistant manager at Cheese Louise in Portland's Old Port said they partnered up with Too Good To Go in July of 2021 as one of the first local businesses on the app.
"We actually have quite a few people come in every day. We usually offer around four surprise bags a day," Anna Katheryn Hodgman, assistant manager at Cheese Louise, said.
The customer doesn't know what's in the surprise bag, but it's not just table scraps.
"With the ingredients we throw in there, you can really make yourself any kind of sandwich. It can be up to about four loaves of bread, all and all, that comes in the [surprise] bag," Hodgman said.
The biggest benefit for the app users is they can get a bag full of food that is worth up to $15, being sold on the app for less than $5.
The business does make a small profit on what would otherwise go in the trash. The app takes a flat fee of $1.79 per sale, and then the company gets to keep the rest.
Hodgman said, "It's way better for the environment than to just throw everything away."
Too Good To Go is saving food and our community one surprise bag at a time.