Food Surplus

• In 2009, supermarkets revenues hit $556 billion• Restaurant industry sales will reach $580 billion

in 2010• Food products (cakes, breads, dented

cans/boxes, fruits and vegetables) make up 63% of a supermarket’s disposed waste

• Millions of tons of food are wasted in restaurants each year

The Missing Link

• There’s an existing supply of food: grocers, restaurants, food wholesalers and cafés

• There’s existing demand for food: soup kitchens, food banks, NGOs

• The disconnect is real-time information because of varying supply, product perishibility and limited window for surplus management

What if…

• You as a restaurant owner could send a text message to one number with information on what’s available, how much and for how much longer it will be around?

• You’re a soup kitchen and you could sign-up for text message alerts to receive information within a 5 mile radius that there was excess food available?

FoodLinked’s Concept to End Hunger

• FoodLinked is an information broker—leveraging existing infrastructure, communications and technologies of hunger organizations

• Using a mobile accessible, cloud-based service, FoodLinked connects supply and demand

• Work within existing workflow of supply side--making entering food supply information quick and easy

• Enhance services—maps and recommended routes to optimize food pick-up

• Added benefits: quarterly tax benefit reports to repeat suppliers, badges for business to post on storefront to show participation in movement

FoodLinked is…

• Anup Akkihal, MS• Aman Bhandari, PhD• David Haddad, MSc• Jaspal Sandhu, PhD