Food for thought: The app hoping to help Tri-Cities residents purchase cheap meals

When he heard about the app, Mehdi Moosaei was skeptical. 

For months, Moosaei, a franchise owner of the Coquitlam-based Body Energy Club, had tried to find ways to keep his food waste from being wasted.

He’d pack a box of sandwiches before they reached their best-before date and drive them to a housing shelter. He gave energy balls and wraps to staff. Other days he passed along pre-packaged meals to his brother-in-law, who would donate the food to people living on the streets in Vancouver. 

But a lot of food still ended up in the trash bin. 

As the cost of living continued to increase in the Tri-Cities, and interest in the local food bank surged, Moosaei figured that the food shouldn’t go to waste. 

“If there is food waste, which we can’t avoid, I’d rather people use it, especially people who are struggling,” Moosaei said. 

Earlier this fall, his parent company started using Too Good to Go, an app where businesses package and sell unsold food — which would usually go to waste — directly to consumers. 

Too Good to Go, founded in Europe in 2016, has grown to serve 17 countries across the world. In 2021, the company moved into Canada, and as of last week, started operating in the Tri-Cities. 

Nicolas Dot, spokesperson for Too Good to Go, said the expansion into the Tri-Cities was a natural progression for their ambitions in the Lower Mainland and southern B.C. 

“During the summer, we expanded into Abbotsford and Kelowna,” Dot said. “Our thought was that this is developing, and having more food business in the Tri-Cities was really obvious with its proximity to the Vancouver region.” 

Since launching on Nov. 28, almost 100 food businesses have registered on the app. Some companies are local to the Tri-Cities and Lower Mainland, such as Holy Mochi Donuts, while others are large chains like Tim Hortons and 7-Eleven. 

The app allows customers to search up restaurants, cafes, and other companies on a map. The businesses then offer ‘surprise bags’ — filled with food that is set to expire — at a discounted price, roughly one third of the retail price, or between $5 and $7 total. 

“If the food says best before December 1, we take it off the shelf on November 30,” Moosaei said. “The food is still good on December 1 and that is the food we basically give away.” 

The Body Energy Club location makes anywhere from $50 to $200 on the app, he added, depending how much food they sold the previous day.

About one-third of all the food produced in the world goes to waste, according to the World Wildlife Federation. Too Good to Go has been pegged as a solution to combat food waste globally, which accounts for roughly 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. 

“It’s a massive environmental issue,” Dot said. “Too Good to Go is trying to offer one solution among a lot of anti-food waste behaviours that can be put in our homes.” 

In some instances, however, consumers have taken to social media to share photos of rotten produce in their surprise bags. Since its launch in B.C., businesses using the app have received mixed reviews on a popular Vancouver Reddit forum. 

Too Good to Go has teams based in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancovuer who work with their partner business to ensure all food that goes in the surprise bags is safe, Dot said. 

The company also has a rating system which allows customers to grade the food and price value on a company’s bag out of five. 

“In B.C., the average rating of a surprise bag is 4.4,” Dot said. “[Consumers] can always ask for a refund, it’s a very smooth process.” 

Personally, Moosaei said, doesn’t put any food in a surprise bag that he would not eat himself. 

“If you would put that food on the table for your family, that’s a food you can offer,” he said. 

As the app makes its presence in the Tri-Cities, Moosaei said he hopes it can be a way for residents to cope with rising food prices and other costs of living. Although Too Good to Go earns his business a little extra cash, that’s not his main goal. 

“It’s not about the four or five dollars I get back, it’s about helping someone,” he said. 

“You see this sense of relief when people pick up two or three items that can be a couple of their meals.”