67: Too Good To Go & Food For The Holidays LGf+w podcast

by Paige Donner
Happy Holidays everyone! This month, we bring you a condensed version of Local GOODfood+wine, in honor of the busy-ness of this season and all its festivities.

I have for you in Episode 67 of our podcast an interview with Luisa Ravoyard who is France’s Communications Director for Too Good To Go.

Is food waste something you think about during the holidays? It is for me! Because while so many go hungry during the holidays – a travesty especially egregious during the holiday season when bounty and abundance is seemingly rubbed in our faces constantly by the industrial advertising complex – tons of food, perfectly good, edible food, is in fact thrown out.

So on the cusp of their launching in the US market, I dialed up these European founders of the smartphone app, Too Good To Go, to talk to them about how their app works both to save consumers on their food bills, and to help food businesses comply with food waste reduction regulations and laws.

Now, full disclosure, in preparation for this interview, I downloaded the app to my upgraded iPhone which was finally compatible with the app, and have been using the service continually for the past 30 days. What did I find? Well, you’ll hear me go on and on enthusiastically about my experiences in this conversation with Luisa. But suffice it to say, that Paris is a bit of a paradise when it comes to food waste reduction. I mean, just within my local 2 km radius, I have the daily choice of dozens of boulangeries (bakeries, of course, in French) not to mention fresh markets, grocery stores, sushi shops, restaurants, specialty shops like Italian delicacies… need I go on? It’s like a kid in a Parisian candy store.

And on top of that, I have been able to reduce my food bill this past month by at least 50%. There was only once when I received a basket of nearly expired food that I didn’t appreciate. And that was from an organic grocery store who handed me a full size brown paper grocery bag full of pretty much rotten bananas. But other than that, my experiences have been all 5 Star. In fact so much so that I am going to have to ration myself on these bakery TooGoodToGo baskets. I mean, too many of those can really add up in the wrong places, if you know what I mean?

Anyway, wishing everyone joyful holidays this season and a gentle reminder that if we are so blessed to have plenty in our lives, lets remember to be generous and giving to those who may not.

And here are some very thoughtful words that crossed my desk this week from Robert de Luxembourg, owner of Domaine Clarence Dillon: