
Excess Catered Food in San Francisco? Donate it to FoodRunners - sbisker
http://www.foodrunners.org/
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sbisker
We just started using this service at GoDaddy/Locu and had our first pickup
today. It was painless, felt good, and made me want to make sure the rest of
the local tech community knew about them.

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derwiki
What happens if someone gets really sick off our leftovers? A caterer of an
old employer told me they didn't donate food to shelters because of the legal
liability.

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ss937
I've had a student startup working doing this exact same thing for the past 2
years in the PHX area - they get this question all the time. Legally they're
covered by good samaritan laws, but they do take several steps to ensure food
safety (temp measurements and controls in the app, avoiding certain types of
foods, etc...)

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hosh
Are they still active? What's the startup's name?

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mrtschndr
I used Food Runners for close to a year at my old company and was continually
impressed with their service. Even when something went wrong, they were quick
to correct and improve each week. They began small but are growing. It felt
good to donate the food rather than compost it.

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jschacher
We started [http://communityplates.org/](http://communityplates.org/) a few
years ago to help with this issue. Our goal was to use volunteers + technology
to help with the logistics for getting the excess food to the people that
needed it. Proud to say we will rescue over 3M pounds of food this year from
grocery stores, restaurants, farmers markets, etc.

We are in Fairfield County, CT, Albuquerque, NM and Columbus, OH, but looking
to grow.

(By the way, if anyone is looking to donate some app development time to a
good cause, we'll gladly take the help)

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AlexUseche
This is amazing! I used to actively participate in a group that made and
delivered food to the homeless a long time ago (about 11 years ago) and that
is something I miss doing. I think that organizations like this one, who are
doing what they are doing for no other reason (religious, political,
ideological or otherwise) than to help those who need help the most are very
inspiring. I wish them all the best and hope that they eventually start
expanding to other cities like Tampa and Orlando.

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Shish2k
Wish this could be done in the UK -- was giving a talk at a conference over
here; hanging around back stage at the end of the night, it was quite
disheartening to see that all the food trays (one of which hadn't even been
started) were shovelled into black bags; the caterers said they weren't
allowed to give the food to charity :(

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user24
> the caterers said they weren't allowed to give the food to charity

Smells like BS to me. Just an excuse to not have to do the logistics.

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hosh
I was just at a conference two weeks ago ... right at the Embarcadero. Looking
at some street folks in the park. Wondering what happens to all that extra
food, and whether I could sneak some out. Thanks for posting this.

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Beliavsky
Feeding the hungry without inquiring why they are hungry can enable self-
destructive and anti-social behavior such as drug addiction. Do the food banks
and homeless shelters in San Francisco help the homeless turn around their
lives?

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jschacher
It's not just the homeless that are hungry. There are kids where the lunch
they get in school is their primary source of food for the day. There are
people working minimum wage jobs that have little money left over for food
after they pay the rent, utilities, etc.

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honksillet
Isn't most catered food inedible by the time an event is over? If foot sit out
for some number of hours (4?) then you have to trash it.

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jschacher
There are some safety issues around temperatures, but typically you can only
save what hasn't been served yet and this food is usually in a warming tray in
the kitchen.

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rdl
This is an excellent idea. I hope they'll expand to the Peninsula.

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dkasper
Check out this:
[http://www.peninsulafoodrunners.org/wp/](http://www.peninsulafoodrunners.org/wp/)

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sethbannon
Anyone know if there is anything like this in New York City?

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covercash
[https://www.cityharvest.org/](https://www.cityharvest.org/)

