FLASHFOOD: Toronto Developer Helps Canadians Buy Food For Less with Local App

Every year, Canadians waste approximately $31 billion worth of food, “from farm to consumer.” And every day in the city of Toronto, grocery stores, markets, food truck, neighborhood diners and five-star restaurants throw away a staggering amount of food. Don’t believe me? Look around the next time you’re out walking. Pass any restaurants? How many of those big yellow garbage bags did you see piled two or three, or more, outside your favourite dining spot? And dumpsters are even worse. Tucked away in back alleys and often brimming with fresh, ripe produce or other top-of-the-line ingredients. The waste is disturbing.

Toronto developer Josh Domingues has a plan to eliminate this commonplace wastefulness. He understands that the big issue in reducing this type of waste is logistics. And he’s addressing questions like, who drops off the food and who picks it up, with his locally based app, Flashfood.

Food For Less

Flashfood eliminates the logistical issues enabling the food to find its way to consumers at a fraction of the cost they would pay in traditional big-box grocery stores.

How It Works

Rather than tossing out perfectly good food, retailers and other dining establishments can now sell their unused food to consumers, directly. All at a discounted price. All through Flashfood.

The flash sale is viewable through the phone app. Choose the food you want and make your purchase. Pick it up at your convenience at some point during the same day.

Win-Win-Win Situation

The startup provides a win-win-win situation for everyone involved: consumers get to purchase quality food at a discounted price (win), restaurants and retailers earn money on food they would otherwise be forced to destroy (win), and nutritious food is kept out of dumpsters, garbage bags, and landfills (win).

Available in multiple Canadian cities, restaurants, like Toronto’s popular King Slice are already on board, along with certain Loblaws locations.

The app will connect consumers with retailers and restaurants. The app also allows users to see how much food they have personally diverted from landfills, by evaluating their order history.

And Flashfood isn’t stopping there. The locally-based food for less app is also donating a percentage of all profits back to organizations like Second Harvest, and others within the community.

Domingues has big plans for the company. He hopes to expand across Canada, and ultimately around the globe.

Follow Flashfood on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or sign up for their mailing list via their website.