WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ned Daryoush runs his family’s kabob restaurants in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore that his father founded 30 years ago.
Food is at his family’s core and his father’s legacy.
“My dad passed a couple of years ago,” Daryoush said, "He just loved taking care of people, and the best way he knew to do that was through food. So, for sure food is something to our family that is super important.”
To let food go to waste breaks his heart.
“Yeah, it hurts, I mean, you realize this could feed a family,” said Daryoush.
That’s when he partnered with Too Good to Go. He’s just one of more than 4,000 restaurants in six cities that have partnered with the new app to lower their waste.
“Too Good to Go was really created to solve the issue of food waste,” said Claire Oliverson, the head of marketing in the U.S. for Too Good to Go.
The app aims to let restaurants sell their leftover food to customers at a steep discount.
“When you pick up a surprise bag, it’s a win for the environment, it’s a win for the partners. They get a little bit of increased revenue, at least hopefully, to cover the cost of their ingredients for food they would normally just throw out, and then it’s a win for consumers because you get to try something new for a third of the price,” said Oliverson.
“I feel like one of the best parts of Too Good to Go is that it’s very open-ended. We have the opportunity to give people the chance to either get tacos, to get fresh tacos or to get like a head of cauliflower, which we’ve done in the past, or like tortillas, like a big sack of tortillas that we’re no longer using,” said Juan Dromgoole, director of operations at Chaia Tacos, a vegetarian taco restaurant in D.C.
Chaia partnered with Too Good to Go as a tool to cut down on waste.
“We’ve worked with Food Rescue U.S. So, they would come pick up leftover food at the end of the night or the next morning and they would distribute food to local shelters,” said Dromgoole.
“In our mind, Too Good to Go is supplementary to the giving and the donation of meals,” said Daryoush.
The two restaurants are trying to do their part to cut down on food waste.
“Unfortunately, in the U.S., 40% of food is actually wasted. This equates to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions,” said Oliverson.
“The industry as a whole, it’s a huge problem,” said Daryoush. “Too Good to Go has really offered a solution that works for everyone.”
It's a solution that lets people in the food industry think less about waste and more about making quality food for their communities.
