An app that tackles food waste and helps people buy discounted food is trending in Pinellas County.
Too Good to Go, originally launched in Europe, has rapidly gained traction in the United States with its mission to reduce food waste. The app provides a simple platform for local restaurants, cafes and bakeries to sell their excess food before it goes to waste. Instead of going in the trash, food left at the end of the day can scrape back a little more value for local small businesses.
Customers, in turn, get the opportunity to purchase products at a fraction of the regular price. Because the eateries don’t know what will be left over, customers purchase a “surprise bag” of food to pick up just before the business closes.
Local favorites like La Segunda, Pete’s Bagels, Valkyrie Doughnuts, Moonlight Boba in Lealman and multiple Kahwa locations have signed up to sell on the app. According to Meghan O’Donnell, a Too Good to Go spokesperson, 30 supplying stores and more than 1,200 paying customers have used the app since it launched in St. Petersburg in November 2023.
“To date, we have saved 2,000 meals in St. Petersburg, the equivalent of 5,000 tons of CO2e avoided. In the two months since launch, Too Good To Go’s impact has been significant, helping local consumers save more than $20,000 on food and aiding partners to generate more than $6,400 in revenue,” O’Donnell told the Catalyst.