To battle food waste, new app connects foodies to imperfect goodies from Minneapolis restaurants
MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis foodies can now help cut back on food waste, by purchasing food from their favorite spots at a fraction of the price. It's thanks to a new app called Too Good To Go.
The app connects consumers with not perfect, but perfectly good food that might end up in the trash otherwise. It's helped The Buttered Tin nearly eliminate its food waste this month.
"It always comes down to a point where you have to throw stuff away, and that hurts," The Buttered Tin pastry chef David Rasmusson said.
Rasmusson said between two locations, The Buttered Tin stays busy. Even so, food waste can be unavoidable and unpredictable.
"Unfortunately, I haven't been so sharp with my psychic abilities," Rasmusson joked. "So, there is times when we have some leftover goodies."
Until this month, those unsold goodies went into the trash. Now, they're sold to consumers for a third of their retail value. In Minneapolis, there are more than 50 vendors ready to offer "surprise bags" of unsold food. Wednesday's special at The Buttered Tin included two cupcakes, a cinnamon roll, and a coffee cake for about $6.
"They get snatched up real quick," Rasmusson said. "It's a high demand."
A high demand serving an even higher mission — a mission founders at Too Good to Go are passionate about.
"We have this vision of a planet with no food waste," TGTG U.S. Country director Chris MacAulay said. "It's going to take a lot of work to get there."
According to MacAulay, more than 250 million meals have been saved across the globe since the app's inception in 2015. More than 1,400 meals have been saved in Minneapolis since its soft launch at the start of September. Wednesday marked the app's official launch in the Twin Cities.
You can buy discounted food through TGTG at Mama Sheila's House of Soul, T-Rex Cookie Kitchen, Backstory Coffee, Butter Bakery Cafe, Intown Sushi and more.
