By: Alexandra Cavallo
Waste not, want not: MIT Sloan School of Management grads Ricky Ashenfelter and Emily Malina are putting that proverb into practice with Spoiler Alert. Launched in November, the 2015 MassChallenge- winning startup is a B2B platform that connects businesses that generate surplus food with nonprofits and other organizations in need. Before the two met in grad school, Ashenfelter had previously worked with major food and retail companies to reduce their environmental footprints through sustainable initiatives. “I saw firsthand the amount of waste being generated at different hubs in the supply chain,” he says.
Spoiler Alert aims to reduce that waste with an app that makes the process easy for both parties, allowing restaurants, farms and food manufacturers to post what food they have available, send a notification to a network of participants—including local organizations like Daily Table, Lovin’ Spoonfuls, Food for Free and the East Boston YMCA Teaching Kitchen—and then make a transaction in real time. Users can message each other to coordinate pick-ups or drop-offs themselves, cutting out a middleman and ensuring that as little food as possible gets, well, spoiled.
Though the startup has only been operational for five months, Spoiler Alert has already grown a network of more than 125 businesses, recovery groups and nonprofits across New England. They hope the success their venture has seen locally will allow them to expand their reach. “Our goal is to create a scalable formula for expansion so that we can take Spoiler Alert to any major city in the U.S. and abroad,” Ashenfelter says.
“The 40 percent of our food supply we waste each year carries with it serious social, environmental and financial costs,” Malina adds. “If we can solve this problem, we can have a tremendous impact on our planet, our communities and food businesses large and small. It’s an issue that we can all relate to. No one likes to see food thrown away.”
Imagine That
By Improper Staff April 22, 2016
Farm to Tablet
By: Alexandra Cavallo
Waste not, want not: MIT Sloan School of Management grads Ricky Ashenfelter and Emily Malina are putting that proverb into practice with Spoiler Alert. Launched in November, the 2015 MassChallenge- winning startup is a B2B platform that connects businesses that generate surplus food with nonprofits and other organizations in need. Before the two met in grad school, Ashenfelter had previously worked with major food and retail companies to reduce their environmental footprints through sustainable initiatives. “I saw firsthand the amount of waste being generated at different hubs in the supply chain,” he says.
Spoiler Alert aims to reduce that waste with an app that makes the process easy for both parties, allowing restaurants, farms and food manufacturers to post what food they have available, send a notification to a network of participants—including local organizations like Daily Table, Lovin’ Spoonfuls, Food for Free and the East Boston YMCA Teaching Kitchen—and then make a transaction in real time. Users can message each other to coordinate pick-ups or drop-offs themselves, cutting out a middleman and ensuring that as little food as possible gets, well, spoiled.
Though the startup has only been operational for five months, Spoiler Alert has already grown a network of more than 125 businesses, recovery groups and nonprofits across New England. They hope the success their venture has seen locally will allow them to expand their reach. “Our goal is to create a scalable formula for expansion so that we can take Spoiler Alert to any major city in the U.S. and abroad,” Ashenfelter says.
“The 40 percent of our food supply we waste each year carries with it serious social, environmental and financial costs,” Malina adds. “If we can solve this problem, we can have a tremendous impact on our planet, our communities and food businesses large and small. It’s an issue that we can all relate to. No one likes to see food thrown away.”
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