Too Good To Go: the app helping London restaurants to cut food waste

The app allows Londoners to collect great meals around closing time each day for bargain prices. Lizzie Edmonds hears how its co-founders overcame their friends' scepticism 
Chris Wilson, Jamie Crummie and Jimmy Wu: Three Londoners who started Too Good To Go
Alex Lentati

The two co-founders of an app that lets Londoners buy perfectly good restaurant meals otherwise destined for the bin are sitting around a table in Soho and tucking into unsold lasagne while reminiscing about pitching their “crazy” idea to friends.

“I said to them: ‘What do you think of this?’ ” recalled Jamie Crummie, 25, one of the team behind Too Good To Go. “They thought I was trying to flog them four-day-old sushi. I was like: ‘No, no, no, it’s not, I promise.’ They — and others — had to be convinced it wasn’t food scraped off people’s plates. They didn’t understand that we’re selling unsold dishes that would otherwise have been thrown away.”

Launched in June, Too Good To Go is a smart response to the 210,000 tonnes of food thrown away annually by UK restaurants and could, if adopted widely, change how the industry deals with unsold meals.

The way it works is that cafes, juice bars and restaurants on the app list how many left-over meals they have at the end of the day and what they will cost — with all dishes reduced to between £2 and £3.80.

Users select what they want, pay for it through the app and collect their meal — served in a biodegradable sugarcane box — at a designated time, usually just before closing. The restaurant takes a cut, and the rest goes towards the app and its development.

The project is an example of the type of not-for-profit social enterprise or charity tackling food waste — or using fresh food to tackle hunger — that could benefit from a grant of up to £20,000 as part of the Standard’s £320,000 grants programme, which was announced as part of our Food for London campaign last week.

Crummie’s co-founder and housemate Chris Wilson, also 25, said: “To begin with, everyone was sceptical. I think it has to do with the stigma of food waste. Even now we get people on social media reacting to the app by saying: ‘Leftovers? No way. Yuck.’

“A lot of people thought we were crazy. A lot still do.”

Too Good To Go is a sustainable take-away app designed to combat the problem of food waste
TGTG

Wilson and Crummie met as freshers at Leeds University where they became concerned at the levels of food waste in the UK. After graduation, Wilson moved to Denmark to be with his now fiancée. While attending a technology event, he stumbled across a Danish concept, Too Good To Go.

“I thought it was the best idea ever,” he said. “The UK is the biggest waster of food in Europe. There is this huge social injustice. We have all this surplus food on one side and people going hungry on the other. We should be treating food as precious and the most valuable energy source and not something to just throw away.”

Wilson approached the team behind the concept and set about developing the app for the UK. Crummie was hired, and they set to work going door to door trying to get restaurants to sign up. Having set up in Brighton, Leeds and Birmingham they launched in London in August.

Jimmy Wu, who worked in a sushi restaurant which signed up to the scheme, was so impressed by what he saw that he has come board.

Wilson said: “We had no idea if it would work. Denmark is an easier market — they have WeFood, the first surplus food supermarket, and are more aware of the issue than in the UK. We knew it could help the epidemic of food waste over here but we had no idea it would take off.”

The team launched in London with an impressive 94 restaurants signed up, which immediately leapt up to 114 with more joining every day. What have been the biggest challenges?

“The biggest restaurant resistance we have experienced is them thinking it might cannibalise their regular custom and undercut them,” said Crummie, who lives in Kingston with Wilson, who has moved back from Denmark.

London's top foodie influencers

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Wilson added: “The simple answer is people can only buy what’s left over, so we are not offering usual dishes for less. If there are five slices of lasagne left, five people can buy it. It’s not a specific lasagne, it’s what’s left — it is very much a get-what-you-are-given concept.”

The boys are ambitious, and have been in talks with Nando’s and have other large chains in their sights.

“If big brands make a conscious effort, then that will have a positive effect,” said Wilson.

“If one of the big players realise there is an issue and that they have a responsibility, they can use their sway for good.

“The ultimate would be to do ourselves out of a job in that food waste will be eradicated. The primary reason for the app is education and information — and trying to decrease the epidemic of food waste in the UK.”

Charities and social enterprises tackling food waste and/or hunger can apply for a grant of up to £20,000 as part of Food for London. See below for which groups are eligible and how to apply.

Our Food For London Campaign

What is it? This £1 million-plus initiative seeks to redistribute surplus food to tackle food poverty.

What are we doing?

1. Backing the scale-up of The Felix Project — our flagship charity — which picks up surplus produce from food suppliers and delivers it to a range of charities that provide meals for those in need.

2. Awarding grants to groups through an open grants programme.

Who can apply for grants?

If you are a charity, community group or social enterprise tackling food waste and/or using fresh food to address food poverty, you can apply for a grant of up to £20,000. Apply by November 11 to The London Community Foundation at: londoncf.org.uk/grants/food-for-london.aspx

Who are our backers?

We have raised over £800,000 for Felix from Citi, Sainsbury’s, Lush founders Mark and Mo Constantine, the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund, a hedge fund boss and the Felix Byam Shaw Foundation, which has pledged to match money raised for The Felix Project with up to £750,000.

The £320,000 grants programme is funded by Citi, D&D London and the Dispossessed Fund.

How you can help

The Felix Project is looking for more:

Food suppliers including supermarkets, wholesalers and food outlets.

Charities which provide meals for those in need and could benefit from free fresh food.

Please email Daisy@TheFelixProject.org

Join the debate at Standard’s forum

Readers are invited to apply for free tickets to our Food Forum on Monday, October 10, at which an expert panel will seek solutions to the issues of wasted food and hunger in London. The panel includes broadcaster Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, campaigner Tristram Stuart, Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe, chef Ruth Rogers, Richard Swannell, of waste charity Wrap, and Jenny Costa, founder of sustainable food brand Rubies in the Rubble. Mayor Sadiq Khan will open the event.

When: 7-8.30pm, October 10

Where: Kings College,

Franklin-Wilkins building, Waterloo Campus,

150 Stamford Street, SE1 9NH.

Doors open 6.30pm. Free admission but ticket-only.

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