Too Good To Go app reducing restaurant, grocery food waste now in Hamilton

An app helping to help save food waste and get meals into the hands of hungry customers is now in Hamilton.

Too Good To Go is a food rescue mobile phone app allowing restaurants to list food items — usually surplus items that won’t be able to be sold before the end of the day — for a lower price.

Sam Kashani, the manager of Canadian operations, told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton Hamiltonians can now have a look through their local neighbourhood, select a business with surplus food, reserve it and pick it up during a defined window.

“Consumers get great value, businesses get incremental revenue and traffic into their stores,” said Kashani.

“Ultimately, we reduce food waste and save food from being thrown out.”

The app became active in Hamilton in late July and boasts more than 35 partners as of early August. It includes Vintage Coffee Roasters on King, the Hearty Hooligan on Ottawa North and others.

There’s no cost to use the app other than paying for the food.

Listings include “surprise bags” or “prepared foods,” meaning customers won’t necessarily be able to pick what they receive from each restaurant.

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Kashani says since their launch in Canada last year, they’ve saved over 650,000 surprise bags equivalent to 1,500 tonnes of CO2 essentially reduced from the environment.

“More tangibly, we’ve helped save about $7 million of food costs by rescuing surplus food again for food that otherwise would have been thrown out,” Kashani said.

Prepared meals and baked goods are the most popular pickups in Canada since the launch in 2021.

The app is also active across most major cities including Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Quebec City.

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