When we are using technology in every aspect of our lives, why don’t we use it to fight one of the basic human problems -hunger
Jasmine Crowe- Founder & CEO of Goodr
Connectivity and updatibility are two powerful features that can bring profound change. Technology gives us both. Among many people using technology to solve different old and emerging problems, Jasmine Crow, an aspiring social entrepreneur, came up with the idea of a tech-based startup focused on eliminating food waste and hunger. In the beginning, she was not aware of any tech skills, but as she progressed, she used technology to build a multi-million dollar enterprise.
How Her Journey Began
Her journey began in 2013 when she first moved to Atlanta. She noticed how many people are sleeping on empty stomachs. Some are begging, and some even digging bins to get any leftovers.
Being a student and part-time waitress, she did not have much money, but she knew how to cook. So, she started an initiative called Sunday Soul. She made a Facebook group, recruited volunteers, and arranged meals for 100 people, which soon grew to provide food to almost 80,000 people. The journey was not without its hardships, and yet she chose to persist;
“She knew what she was fighting for was right. She believed that everyone deserves to eat.”
The more she got into it, the more she became concerned, and in 2015 it became personal to her when she observed a friend choosing between basic food and paying bills.
Goodr
A significant change occurred when the Sunday Soul video got viral. People began to ask which restaurant is donating this food, and she begins to wonder what happens to the restaurant’s surplus food. So, she did her research and found how much food is going to landfills and causing a 3-dimensional problem
- Social because 42 million people are sleeping hungry.
- Economical because $218 Billion goes waste to manufacture food that nobody eats. And,
- Environmental because leftover food creates methane gas, causing global climate changes.
It became clear to her that hunger is not a scarcity issue but a logistics issue.
And the solution lies in building a food supply chain. So, as per solution, In January 2017, she created Goodr, a tech-enabled surplus food chain business.
How Does The Chain Work as Business
- The organization attaches surplus food to nonprofit organizations and people who need it.
- For restaurants, it charges a fee-for-service based on the volume of food waste.
- Through the app, Goodr works with drivers who receive a request from a restaurant and pick up and deliver food to nonprofits within a three- to five-mile radius.
- Any food that is not edible goes to animal feed, compost or mulch, or is used for electrical energy.
How It Helps Other Businesses
Goodr helps restaurants save money since they receive tax deductions for everything they donate and become more efficient. It also provides restaurants with solutions to tackle food waste. Goodr’s data and analytics enable them to keep track of their waste streams. As a result, they save money in producing extra food and get a chance to support their communities.
Goodr provides logistics, analytics, and liability protection to businesses that donate food for tax deductions.
Jasmine Crowe- Founder & CEO of Goodr
It helps businesses save millions of dollars they are wasting on extra food.
Also, Goodr believes that you can’t manage what you don’t measure. So they use a data secure hyper ledger that shows the food request timing, picked up when Goodr recovered it, and when the nonprofit received it. They sign for it as they would for a UPS package, and then their donation receipt is automatically generated into Goodr customers’ dashboard. So they don’t get to pay taxes for the food they donate.
It also makes sure that the restaurant’s data is safe. There is a record of all these transactions, and their nonprofit partners are simply making sure that their donation receipts match up to everything they are receiving.
How It Helps Jasmine With Her Business
For every dollar a restaurant spends with its organization, the company recoups anywhere from five to ten percent of that amount through tax savings and waste reduction by reducing the restaurant’s waste stream.
What is Unique About Jasmine
- Rather than passively adopting the same old charity techniques, she used a different strategy. To eliminate poverty, she did not follow the techniques used by non-profit organizations or food banks that distribute fancy macaroni and potato chip bags. She realized that this way of charity is a loop and nothing is changing. So, she introduced the use of tech and blockchain to resolve hunger.
- Jasmine is a master presenter at the BPMM Mind Conference, who will help you with innovative solutions for persisting old problems around us.
- 42 countries have requested Jasmine to bring Goodr to their country and states. Her compassion and novelty are making a difference throughout the world.