By Nyesha Stone
Jasmine Crowe visits Milwaukee to speak at an 88Nine Lab. (Picture by Nyesha Stone)
When Jasmine Crowe moved to Atlanta, she noticed how big the homeless population was, so she took matters into her own hands and started cooking for them. At first, she prepared meals every two weeks, but now she’s helping on a larger scale.
It started one day when Crowe was upset after reading a report, which revealed how much food is wasted each year. So, Crowe did what she does best and took things into her own hands.
In 2017, Crowe founded Goodr—a sustainable food waste management company.
According to Goodr, the US waste over 72 billion pounds of edible food yet over 40 million people are going hungry.
Crowe said we invest millions of dollars into providing a service to get food delivered to people who can afford to get food themselves, yet don’t focus on trying to feed those who need it.
Instead of a business throwing its perfectly edible food away at the end of the day, Goodr picks it up and delivers it to a nonprofit. This reduces greenhouse gas emissions and helps fight against the growing homeless and hungry population.
“When food goes to waste, it’s affecting you, it’s affecting your future,” said Crowe.
Crowe was the key note speaker at 88Nine Milwaukee Radio’s Labs where she shared her success story.
During her talk, she stated that she started off as a one-person team, but now has 20 full employees and has employed thousands through the many Goodr deliveries in different cities. Within her first year, Crowe raised over 1 million dollars.
Goodr is an app-operated business that keeps track of everything, from the pick-up to the delivery. The app also keeps track of how many pounds of food an organization has donated, the value of that food, how many meals they’ve donated, who’s received the food, among other points of data.
Crowe said Goodr focuses on providing prepared meals because if someone doesn’t have somewhere to stay then most likely they don’t have power.
Goodr works with a variety of companies that provide anything from nutritious items such as fresh asparagus to favorites like pizza.
“[Goodr] educates people on healthy options,” like balanced meals said Crowe.
Goodr is hoping to expand into more cities and countries. For more information on Goodr, visit https://goodr.co/.