CHANGING THE WORLD
putting imperfect produce to use
CHANGING THE WORLD
ImperfectFruit buys food from grocery stores and local farms that will be thrown away due to their looks and sells them for cheap to financially challenged families. Anything that is unsellable will be donated to our local Round Rock Serving Center so they can use it as compost or find another use for the produce.
Our goal is to change the cult of perfection our society has cultivated and show people that bad looking doesn’t necessarily mean unhealthy. We aim to, also, try to destroy the habit of eating unhealthy food due to their convenience and price.
Why Is This a Problem
Food waste has been a recent point of attention. Many non-profit organizations are attacking this problem vigorously to try to stop it early. According to Bin Simone, CEO of Imperfect Produce Non-Profit Organization, “One in five fruits and vegetables don’t make it off the farms because they’re cosmetically challenged.” This “imperfect produce” is left to rot, feed livestock, or fill up landfills instead of other useful applications such as the transformation to jam or similar products. Furthermore, about 30 percent of food in American grocery stores is thrown away as a result of people avoiding them because of their looks. In addition, our problem has another dimension: financially challenged families resorting to food from local convenient stores. While, these convenience stores offer many perks, such as convenience and price, they come with many health consequences. Furthermore, these families don’t have interest in buying healthy food because it comes with a high price tag. It’s much easier to buy unhealthy food because for every supermarket there are 5 convenient stores.