An Innovative App Helps Minnesota Companies Get Leftover Food to People in Need
Across the metro, the app is helping boost the number of companies able to find a home for extra food.
Originally published by the Star Tribune
By Kelly Smith
The city of Minneapolis recently launched a new program working with local companies and restaurants to box up leftovers and drop them off at nonprofits such as Pillsbury United Communities, which feeds people at their dining sites and food shelves. Nearby, the nonprofit Loaves & Fishes started a pilot program five years ago with Best Buy that’s grown to include 19 businesses — from big corporations like Medtronic to smaller ones like Wuollet Bakery — all of which donate surplus food to feed the hungry.
And across the metro, a new app is helping boost the number of companies able to find a home for extra food.
The free app, MealConnect, was developed in 2017 by Feeding America, the largest hunger-relief organization in the nation, thanks to a $1 million grant from Minnesota-based General Mills.
Food banks across the U.S. are now using the app, which allows organizations to post when they have excess food; the app then matches them with an agency that can pick up the donation.
