Sometimes, the commercial toasters are used a little bit too much and there are leftovers and food waste. It’s something that happens, and even though restaurant owners try to eliminate this, it’s occasionally unavoidable. There is one organization in Chicago who is doing something with the excess.
Zero Percent was founded with a mission to eliminate food waste. They have set up logistics for restaurants to get food to the nonprofits that need it. Founder Rajesh Karmani mentions, “Now we feel like we can make a much bigger difference connecting restaurants with food deserts.”
He has made a donation platform for people to help others make sure that donated food gets where it needs to be going. In food deserts, there are often people who haven’t experienced fruits and vegetables, because they have been exposed to so much processed food.
Zero Percent does the coordination of the food from the restaurants to the nonprofits, acting as middlemen in a landscape which needs that kind of coordination. They are providing about 2,000 meals a day, every day of the week. Not only does food waste that was meant for the commercial toasters go here, but food which is a touch past its prime.
Even pizzas are part of the mix. One pizza shop occasionally has people who order and don’t pick up their food leaving the restaurant with extra on their hands. This is a great answer to what restaurants can do with the extra food on their hands. We hope that it spreads around the country.
