Extra urban garden produce doesn't have to go to waste this fall. A new app, Fresh Food Connect, helps Denver gardeners find needy homes for their surplus produce, 5280 reports.
Denver Urban Gardens, Groundwork Denver and Denver Food Rescue together developed the program, which launched in July. The app is still in development.
Denver Food Rescue executive director Turner Wyatt told 5280 the program aims to “unlock a previously untapped resource of food in a cost-effective method.”
Gardeners with the 80205 zip can sign up for the program at freshfoodconnect.org, enter basic information about the delivery and then leave the food on their porch for pick-up. One of a fleet of bike-riding volunteers, mostly low-income youth, will stop by to pick up the donation once per week and transport it to one of Denver Food Rescue’s 12 pop-up pantries. There, locals can stop by to stock up on healthy produce for free.
Although the service is only available in 80205, signing up can help generate the interest the service needs to grow. And Wyatt has big plans for the future.
He has been experimenting with selling the fresh produce at corner stores in food deserts and also hopes to test out a produce-for-payment model for low-income residents looking to sell their own produce to Fresh Food Connect.
“It’s all sort of a learning experiment right now,” Wyatt told 5280.
According to the Fresh Food Connect’s website, 30 to 40 percent of food in the United States gets wasted. Fresh Food Connect is Denver Food Rescue’s answer to food waste and poverty.
Multimedia business & healthcare reporter Chloe Aiello can be reached via email at [email protected] or twitter.com/chlobo_ilo.
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