Dive Brief:

• Food Cowboy has created a real-time crowd-sourced map that tracks food waste and book-keeping operations for charities, retailers, and wholesalers. 
• Donors can search for charities by location, hours of operation, storage capacity, and type of loading dock. Scheduling and communication is handled via the Food Cowboy system. 
• The app uses Foursquare to alert charities about the amount of produce available in the area, and provides details about food quality. 

Dive Insight:

Food and organic materials account for 25% of the waste stream. Communities, supermarkets, restaurants, cities, and some states are looking for ways to divert organics from entering landfills. Some have imposed bans while others have implemented food collection programs in an attempt to reduce the volume of food waste. 

The Food Cowboy database currently includes 700 charities, including 350 food banks, and 500 truckers are involved with the system nationwide. The company’s goal is to enroll 50,000 restaurants, and it eventually hopes to have every single grocery store in America onboard. Food Cowboy is hosting the “Great Food Roundup” in October in order to get more users to participate in the system.

Here’s a look at how it works. 

Numerous food apps are launching as a response to the increased awareness surrounding food waste. One app that is expected to launch soon, “PareUp,” connects leftover food items to consumers and gives customers the ability to locate and purchase perishables at a discounted rate.  Another app on the market, Ratatouille, gives people the ability to share food with those looking to exchange food items that would otherwise go to waste.