HN Explorer

ASK HN: FREE FOOD?

5 points by komal1120 ↗ HN
1) Would you post about your excess (leftover) food to a network that would notify organizations in need? (i.e. homeless shelters etc.)

2) Would you subscribe to a service that would alert you (based on your preferences) whenever free food was available in your area?

For both of these questions please assume food is safe and liability is NOT a concern.

11 comments

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Shalle
1. No I probably would not because of the hustles it involves. 2. No I not unless I was homeless and broke. And if so I would most likely only look for unopened things. Otherwise I might as well just look in dumpsters by myself.
komal1120
1) What if all you needed to do was snap a photo and maybe write a brief description of the donation and select an 'expiration day and time'?

2) Imagine you are a college student and this food is coming from on-campus sources and events -- would that change anything?

caw
I thought about #2 a few years ago, then I realized there's a Facebook page for it (literally free food at [school]). You'd be stuck with adoption of people posting free food and then visiting the site to the the free food.
notjustanymike
Probably not in both cases. There's usually no need to post - restaurants always have leftovers and organizations like City Harvest can partner with them. Scheduled pickups work just fine. If you're talking about posting individual portions (e.g. my dinner currently) there's no way it's cheaper for them to come pick it up than to cook something fresh in bulk.
komal1120
Even with organizations like City Harvest, Food Runners, food banks, etc., there are still 263 million pounds of consumable food wasted every day. How can we address this?
shrughes
And hundreds of thousands of people die of malaria every year. There are more efficient ways to spend charitable energy.
notjustanymike
How much of this food is part of the long tail? How energy efficient is it pursuing this dispersed food? Would that energy be better spent elsewhere?
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l33tbro
1. Absolutely. This is a great idea. I think you would just really need to make it as painless and automated for your user/food-provider as possible.

2. Perhaps. However, as a food provider, I would be less willing to provide if I knew that the food was going to "just anyone". I would be much more likely to sign up if I knew it was going to the disadvantaged. There's an Australian organization called OzHarvest who does a similar thing, but gets food from restaurants. It's an incredibly successful social venture.