CLEVELAND, OH - In an effort to cut down on food waste, Giant Eagle announced it has expanded its partnership with Flashfood, the innovative digital marketplace that provides shoppers with access to discounted food nearing its best-by date. Through the growth of this alliance, the retailer will be rolling out the Flashfood app at all 173 corporate Giant Eagle and Giant Eagle Market District stores.
“Our partnership with Flashfood has not only helped us in our mission to reduce food waste, but it has helped us better serve our guests and their families by offering more value-focused grocery options,” said Dan Donovan, Giant Eagle Director of Corporate Communications. “With the success we’ve seen so far, it was a natural next step to expand the program to all our corporate supermarket locations to offer more guests access to this savings opportunity while making an even bigger impact on the environment.”
Giant Eagle first introduced the Flashfood program at 34 of its locations in 2021, according to a release.
“At Giant Eagle, we recognize the responsibility we have to provide access to nutritious food while taking important steps to reduce food waste. As part of our Full Plates Zero Waste initiative, we have committed to achieving zero waste by 2025, and partnerships, like the one we have with Flashfood, are a vital component in our plan to achieve this goal. Following the success of our initial Flashfood pilot, we felt that expanding the relationship would offer guests across our markets the ability to realize meaningful grocery savings while creating a unique and significant opportunity to divert hundreds of thousands of pounds of potential food waste each year," added Giant Eagle Public Relations Specialist, Jannah Jablonowski.
Since then, more than 430,000 lbs of fresh food waste has been diverted from the landfills—the equivalent of 159,102 meals and 834,335 lbs of CO2 emissions saved from entering the atmosphere.
This upcoming 140-store expansion will start in Cleveland, Ohio, and will steadily roll out throughout the rest of Ohio and Pennsylvania, with an anticipated end date by the finish of October.
“Our expanded partnership with Giant Eagle couldn’t come at a more critical time,” said Josh Domingues, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Flashfood. “With inflation causing grocery prices to soar, the 140-store expansion will increase our ability to feed more families affordably and reduce the amount of food reaching the landfill four-fold. It is a big win for both Ohio and Pennsylvania shoppers and the planet.”
For more updates on Giant Eagle’s partnership with Flashfood and other innovators, keep reading AndNowUKnow.
