The delicious potential of rescuing wasted food | Jasmine Crowe-Houston

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2:10Terms and conditions apply. Here are two things we know. In the U.S., way too many families experience hunger and food insecurity. Food insecurity is on the rise across the U.S., and the recently passed bill by Congress has made the largest cut to SNAP benefits in the program's history. Here's the other thing we know. In the U.S., way too much perfectly good food is being thrown out. The USDA estimates that food waste is somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of the food supply. Given how many people are forced to go hungry, that's hugely upsetting. And all that waste is also environmentally disastrous.

2:54So the big question is, how do we get this food to the many people who need it?

3:04I'm Madhup Akinola. This is TED Business, a podcast from TED. Our speaker today is social entrepreneur Jasmine Crow Houston. Jasmine is the founder of Goodr, a platform that helps connect people with surplus food. In this conversation with TED Radio Hour's Manoj Zomorodi, she talks about tackling food waste and how a brief brush with virality helped people see the potential of her project. Then after the talk, we'll run some diagnostics on this issue and think about ways to break the mold to create a better world for all. But first, a quick break. This episode is brought to you by PACA. You know those pieces you'd wear every day if you could get away with it?

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5:27And now, Jasmine Crow Houston and Manoj Zomorodi take the TED stage. Okay, so I have been following Jasmine's career. She gave a TED Talk at TED Women five years ago. in December. Yeah, which is crazy. And I interviewed you three years ago and now here you are and so much has happened. Yes. You are more of a behind the scenes person for people who don't know Gooder. Explain your story, how you came to be so aware of food waste and what you are doing. I started Gooder here in Atlanta. I had created for people experiencing homelessness, a pop-up restaurant. And the concept really came to me after feeding and working with a volunteer group and making all these peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, going out to the streets and handing them out and a man telling me, oh, I'm allergic to nuts.

6:21And I thought we just made a thousand peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and nuts are one of the number one allergies. And it made me think that dignity was lost and how we are serving our unhoused and how we're serving people in need And that too often we think, well, they're homeless or they're hungry. Take this and be happy, forgetting the fact that they can have religious convictions, dietary restrictions, or they can plain out be allergic. And so I created this pop-up restaurant where I would rent tables and chairs and linens and print out menus and let people feel like they were dining at a restaurant and a video went viral.

6:54And it was a 15-second clip. I'll never forget it because it was before Instagram allowed you to have minute videos, longer videos. So I woke up one morning really afraid because I had never, I mean, obviously gone viral. And I was like, what's going on on Facebook? I need to get off this app. It was like one of those things. And so I'm reading through millions of views and comments. And what people kept asking me was who donated the food? And the truth was nobody. I was couponing, price matching. I would start cooking on Friday, Saturday, go out and feed about three to 500 people every Sunday.

7:26And so I was like, I need to get this food donated. it, I went to Google fully expecting to get a list of all the businesses that are going to donate food to me to help me keep feeding people and I would live happily ever after. And instead, I found about food waste. And I read an 86-page report by the Harvard Food Law Policy Group. And as I'm reading through this at this point now into the wee hours of the morning, I'm getting upset because I'm thinking about the people that are lined up at 9 a.m. for my 3 p.m. feeding every Sunday because they know that there's not a lot of people that come out to feed during the week.

8:02They were living at the former Metro Atlanta Peachtree Homeless Task Force. It was the only shelter in the city that would allow families to come. And that's so important. A lot of you all don't know, but if you are a homeless mother, you have a 15-year-old son, you guys got to go to two different shelters. Oh, right. And so I was feeding all these people. I learned about food waste and I became upset. And I was like, I'm going to solve this. I'm going to do something to your point, better and gooder. And that's what got me started. So explain what Gooder does now, because from going to peanut butter sandwiches.

8:35Yes. It's impressive. So now we have a two sided business model as it relates to food waste. We can help a business keep all of their food out of landfill. If it's edible, we're getting it to people in need that are people like me feeding people, shelters, safe houses, domestic violence centers, churches. One of our largest partners is communities and schools. We feed thousands of kids every week. So we keep edible food from going to landfill, and we are delivering it directly to people in need while giving all of our clients back a lot of data. How many pounds they're keeping out of the landfill?

9:09What does this mean for their CO2 emissions and their carbon footprint? And then we have a hunger side of our business, which was birthed during the pandemic that really focuses on creating sustainable solutions to solve hunger. We build free grocery stores inside of schools. We have 28 right now around the country. We have grocery and meal delivery during the height of the pandemic. Gooder delivered all the meals to Atlanta public school students that got free breakfast and lunch, but were learning virtually. So we made sure that they got food at home. So we really are solving hunger and food waste.

9:40So can you just explain, can we give her, yeah.

9:48Part of me is like 40%, that's such a crazy statistic. It's a crazy number. But why? When you talk to the companies, nonprofits, like what is happening that there is so much food available but going nowhere? I mean, it's a startling number. If food waste itself was a country, it would be the third largest country in the world. So it's a lot of food. So you think about that. I mean, between the production, the transportation and the disposal, nearly 2 percent of all U.S. GDP we spend on food that, you know, we never even eat. And I think what it is, is that the old guard is we've always done it this way.

10:23We've always thrown it away. And this is how we do it. And of course, when I was first starting, people were like, oh, well, if someone gets sick and we'll get sued. And so Gooder said, hey, we'll take on all of that onus. We provide the packaging materials. We provide the labels. when nonprofits receive the food, it comes from Gooder. They sign hold harmless agreements. I have a multimillion dollar liability insurance because the airport was my first customer and we were driving on tarmacs and I ended up having to get insurance that I wasn't quite ready for, but it definitely helped the business.

10:52And even with all of that, people will still say, well, we're just afraid or our lawyers just can't wrap their heads around it. Or, you know, we're just, we're going to compost everything, even if it's edible, which I'm still happier that it's not going into landfill if it gets composted. You know, of course, Goodr, we deliver to hog farms, we turn, we have anaerobic digesters, we'll take food too. So we want to keep it out of landfill. But feeding hungry people is not a priority for too many people in this country. And that's a problem. Yeah.

11:27Tomorrow, I am coming to see one of your facilities. I'm so excited about that. You're going to love it. From what I understand, it's bread day. So bread is going to be coming in from all different places, and then you are going to be sorting it. Some of it goes, as you said, to compost if it's not for human consumption. Or to a hog farm. Or to a hog farm, which is amazing. Or a cattle farm. I think we have cattle farms now, too. And cattle farms. Yes, you do. I've seen that. And then some will go, of course, to people, to schools, to hospitals, or wherever else. but talk to me more from the the corporate side yeah how did you get people to come on board with this like did something have to change when it comes to laws and forcing companies to do this is it because they want to be able to say to their customers like we are a sustainable company like so what I used to do is I would go to the websites of the big hotel groups the big food groups and I would look at their sustainability reports this is how I got the airport as a customer and I went to them and I said, hey, you know, 27 % of, I'm looking at your waste tonnage and 27 % of this, according to the EPA, is food.

12:34So you guys wasted 25 million meals. Now I have no idea if that was true, but I looked at their sustainability report. I used the EPA's calculation that food was the number one thing in landfill. And I was able to go back to the Atlanta airport and say, listen, you guys are sitting in College Park. The children in this city are living in poverty and all this food is going to waste. And this doesn't make any sense. And so the airport became one of our first large scale customers. And you think of all of the grab and go food items that goes to waste every single night if it's not for gooder. And now that's why I need to be in more airports.

13:05But getting that before it goes to waste and getting it to Gateway Center before Georgia workforce, their third shift is coming out and building half of this city. A lot of men that are trying to transition out of homelessness, them getting that meal, putting this food in our grocery stores and families taking it home for free. This is what this is what it does. So I think so much it was really about making people keep their promises. You know, like, hey, I won't say the hotel group, but they had on their website, and this is someone I'm trying to pitch now, and I was like, hey, you guys said you're going to cut food waste in half by 2025.

13:39This is in two months. Like, why have you guys not started? Like, what's the process? So a lot of times, it's trying to hold their foot to the fire. Can we clone Jasmine? I want her holding all these companies accountable. it's about keeping the i mean people need to keep i think we we live for the announcement and we as people don't follow up yeah yeah on the delivery right because for someone to invest millions i mean i don't even know how much a super bowl commercial costs but i've heard it's like a million dollars per 30 seconds i could be wrong but to invest two to three million dollars and not follow up on your promise that's called greenwashing yes yeah that's a lot of that that's a lot.

14:17So you're not just in Atlanta though now, you've grown a lot. Yes. So we are in 15 states, 26 markets. So this is where we have food moving and being donated. And then we have grocery stores in about five states, maybe six or seven now, but we are doing our food waste business, obviously in more locations. So someone was asking me, they're like, but how does, how do these companies keep track? Cause it must be so random what they can get rid of. And I said, well, actually, there's an app for that. There is. Which, at first, when I first heard about your app, I was like, that seems weird. But actually, it is really the linchpin in making this new system work.

14:55It's a logistics issue, right? Yeah, tell us about it. That's really what I saw. So when, and shout out to Jackie Chu. She runs TED Atlanta, TEDx Atlanta. And she convinced me to do my first TEDx talk. And when I was talking to her about it, she was like, oh, I get it. It's a logistics problem. And I was like, you get it. And that's really what it is. hunger is not an issue of scarcity. And we hear about that right there. We need to produce more food. We need to grow more food. We are wasting 40 % of it. It's really about logistics. How do we connect this excess food with the millions of people that need it?

15:25Seniors, their income doesn't change. You know, we're going to be seniors, all of us. Some of us probably already are, but all of us, God willing. And once you get to that point, it doesn't matter then if toilet paper goes up, if bread is more expensive, if eggs are more expensive, this is all you have to work with. So it's really about how quickly can we match it. So we inventory everything it is that they sell. We create a very easy user experience where they click on the items, tell us how many, request a pickup. We leverage the shared economy that's already out there, meaning, and that's how we've been able to grow to a lot of different locations.

15:57We don't have to hire our own drivers. We don't have to, you know, purchase trucks and vehicles. Now we do have a couple, but what we, what we leverage is a driver that's already out there and drivers love it. They're like, oh my God, like I'm feeding people, I'm getting paid to do it. And they make it happen. Literally like the person, let's say I'm working at a big company and I work, you know, in the cafeteria area, what do I take out my phone and what do I do? Or it could go on your point of sale system and you click on the Gooder app, your menu is already there and you're just clicking on the items that you have saying, I've got 10 chicken breasts.

16:31I've got this. Our platform is calculating the approximate weight of those items. So we pull a lot of that data from U.S. Foods, Cisco, whoever they're ordering their food from. And then it's calculating the tax value of those items at the time of donation, which is a critical offering to our clients. And once that food gets picked up, a nonprofit receives it. They sign for it like they would a UPS package and a donation letter with a picture of that donation from that nonprofit automatically goes to our client's portal. So now they see everything that they've donated, the nonprofit it went to, and a tax deduction receipt for what they donated.

17:08And the carbon that they've saved? And yeah, we have a corporate social responsibility impact report as well as a sustainability. And it's actually, I remember one of my angel investors, she sits on the board of IHG, who's one of Goodr's customers. And she messaged me last year at their board meeting in London. And she was like, Goodr is on the board report. Like they're literally talking about how we're cutting food waste with this company. They're starting to show off by using it. They're starting to show off. I mean, as they should. Damn straight. I mean, it's like such a good thing, yeah. Growth.

17:42What's, I mean, we should be clear, you're not a nonprofit. I'm not. You are a B Corp. Why is that important to you? Why did you decide to go for a for-profit company? Is it because that is something that you hope to scale? Where are the pros and cons with that? There was a couple things. One, I think the nonprofit was going to be a much harder old guard to get past, because everybody always donates to the food bank. It's all we ever know. We've been doing canned food drive since we were eight. Our kids are still doing it in school now. And I felt like I was going to be spending a lot of time trying to gain respect in the nonprofit space.

18:15The biggest piece that I saw, though, was that businesses were already paying to throw this food away. So this was not newfound spend. They're already paying waste management, Republic Services, whoever their waste company is. Mind you, the waste industry is a trillion dollar industry. None of us ever say, let's just keep our trash. Right. Like we were like, is trash day missing? Oh, my God, it's a hurricane. They didn't run today. Like what's happening? Like we are paying for this on a daily basis. So when I realized that, I realized that this was not going to be newfound spend for these businesses.

18:45It was going to be a better spend. So dollar for dollar, we're a little bit more expensive. But the outcome, the return on the investment for our clients is far much greater than they would ever get from a traditional waste company. And so I do look at us as a triple bottom line. We're for people, we're for planet, and we are for profit.

19:25What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com slash bank. Capital One N.A. Member FDIC. Hi, this is Becca Moore from For the Girls, and this podcast is sponsored by Aerie, where you can find the right bra in 59 sizes, soft fabrics, and good fits. If your bra strap is digging into your shoulder right now, it's the wrong bra. We get so used to being in pain as girls that we forget it doesn't have to be this way. Your clothes should not hurt. I got to the point where I stopped wearing bras altogether, and now my life has changed, you guys. The only bras I have in my dresser right now are Aerie, and I'm not kidding.

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21:12That was Jasmine Crow Houston speaking with Manoj Zamarodi at TED Next 2024. I appreciate how Jasmine never lost sight of the dignity of the people she was serving. It's not about feeding people food that others want to throw away. It's about giving people options and access to nourishing meals that would otherwise go to waste. That's what her original viral pop-up restaurant that spurred this project was all about. Making people feel cared for and fed in the way that everyone deserves. I was inspired by the passion driving Jasmine's work, but I also loved seeing her problem-solving skills. She gives so many important examples of how to break down a big topic into smaller, bite-sized actions.

21:59We have the resources we need to make sure people don't go hungry. So next, Jasmine asked herself, why is it so hard to make sure people get what they need? Jasmine did some good old-fashioned big-picture thinking to diagnose the cause of the problem. She realized that what she was really facing was a logistics issue. That diagnosis helped her see more clearly what needed to be fixed and why people were dragging their heels. It's important to always keep your motivation in mind, but zooming out is a necessary skill too. Like Jasmine, I want you to think about an issue you're facing in your organization where you might often hear, well, we do it this way because that's the way we've always done it.

22:46Take a moment to look at the big picture. What's the specific roadblock you're facing in solving the problem? Might it be a logistics issue? A people issue? A technical issue? A legal issue? A question of know-how? Simply diagnosing this is the first step in building a more convincing case for how and why that issue needs to be addressed. That's it for today. TED Business is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced by Hannah Kingsley Ma, edited by Alejandra Salazar, and fact-checked by Julia Dickerson. Special thanks to Maria Ladias, Farah DeGrange, Daniela Ballarezzo, Tansika Sangmanibang, and Roxanne Heilash.

23:34I'm Madhupa Akinola. Thanks for listening.

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