Start Up That Delivers 'Ugly Produce' Is Benefiting The Community
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A startup that delivers surplus produce is beginning to give back to the community.
You may have seen Hungry Harvest earn an investment last year on TV's Shark Tank. The Baltimore-based startup expanded to Philadelphia last fall.
The company buys "ugly" or surplus produce from farmers and retailers, then boxes and delivers it to paying customers, says the company's Philadelphia manager Cynthia Plotch.
"A lot of the stuff that comes in our box isn't even ugly. It's oversupplied or a farmer can't get a truck from point A to point B. And that's where we're able to come in."
For every box sold, the company donates up to two pounds of food to Philabundance, where director of food acquisition Scott Smith says the company has just donated its five-thousandth pound.
"This month, we received over a million pounds from the Port of Philadelphia -- donations of excess produce. Hungry Harvest comes in with a donation of 5 thousand pounds. But the idea of Hungry Harvest is, it's about variety."