DoorDash helps users combat food waste
With so much food going to waste, food delivery app DoorDash figured it had the tools to do something about it.
Project DASH launched this month to give back to food banks and help restaurants with the 100,000 pounds of their extra food that's thrown away each year.
Now restaurants can donate food through a pilot program in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and New York City. DoorDash deliverers will drop off food at the charity group Feeding America's hubs that connect food to nonprofits and food banks. Restaurants that want to get involved are urged to get in touch with the app and start hooking up extra food to the delivery program.
These eateries and food banks have participated in the donation program: Bodhi Bowl, Eataly, Kayndaves, BiiBiip Mediterranean, Feast From The East, Veggie Grill, The Midnight Mission, Westside Food Bank, World Harvest Food Bank, and the Sylvia Rivera Soup Kitchen.
In addition, every order on DoorDash this month means a meal donation through Feeding America. A company spokesperson said in a call that after January, DoorDash hopes to partner with national restaurants already available on the app and have those restaurants sponsor the donations each month.
Another quick online tool to combat food waste is the Guest-imator. Restaurants may have a lot of leftovers, but so do home cooks. An effort from the Ad Council and Natural Resource Defense Council's Save the Food campaign, the calculator helps figure out how much to buy for that dinner party or just dinner for two.
Save the Food has found 40 percent of all food goes uneaten each year in the U.S. That's $218 billion worth of waste.
Delivery already sounded appealing, but now it might actually help.
Topics Activism Social Good
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
