More than enough food is produced annually to feed all eight billion people on the planet, yet one in eight Americans experience food insecurity.
The Department of Agriculture estimates that between 30% to 40% of the food supply is wasted.
“This is not a matter of supply or scarcity,” Kimberly Smith told the Business Journal. “Rather, it’s a logistics issue.”
Smith is the chief executive of Copia, a Laguna Beach technology startup whose platform collects excess food and distributes it to those in need.
Copia’s automated platform takes excess food from restaurants, grocers, caterers and other businesses, and directly donates it to nonprofit organizations. Copia also takes non-food donations such as diapers, shampoo and paper towels.
The company currently operates in Canada, Puerto Rico and all 50 U.S. states.
Copia accepts prepared foods from a wide variety of small establishments to district distributors.
Local businesses that have donated through the app include North Italia, True Food Kitchen, The Ranch at Laguna Beach and the Pendry Newport Beach.
Three Simple Steps
Getting businesses to change their behaviors is the main challenge, Smith said.
“It’s easiest to throw something away,” Smith said. “We needed to remove as much friction as possible, and that is what we’ve done.”
Copia’s platform has streamlined the donation process into three simple steps.
A business, such as a restaurant, reports what and how much excess food it has. Copia’s software then matches it with a local nonprofit in need of that kind of donation to avoid what Smith calls “donation dumping.”
“Just because someone has excess food doesn’t mean they can just show up at a nonprofit and hand it over,” Smith said. “We ensure that every donation finds the right home.”
To deliver the donation, businesses can either dispatch a third-party driver through Copia or give it to the nonprofit themselves.
Copia makes money by charging businesses a small percentage of the value of the food they’re donating, according to its website.
Triple Bottom Line Benefit
Donating food through Copia gives businesses a triple bottom line benefit, Smith said.
In addition to feeding their community, they’re reducing impacts on landfills, which is one of the largest contributors to methane and carbon emissions.
There’s also a financial benefit to donating surplus food, according to Smith.
“If you have $100 worth of food that you’re going to throw away, you write it off as a loss of $100,” Smith said.
“If you donate it, you have the upside of up to $200, doubling your enhanced tax deduction just by doing the right thing.”
Smith was originally brought on as chief growth officer in 2019. A majority of her career was spent in the advertising technology industry, previously holding lead roles at Appsnack, an Exponential division, and Flashtalking.
“I wanted to bring my experience with data technology to an antiquated system and be in an industry that was actually making a positive impact,” Smith said.
Copia, which identifies as a profit for purpose business, is venture-backed and has raised $8.1 million, according to PitchBook.
Its investors have backgrounds in a wide variety of industries ranging from hospitality to statistical analysis systems in technology. One of its backers is New York-based Branded Hospitality Ventures, a well-regarded firm known for spotting startups that help restaurants improve margins.
Smith said that Copia plans to ramp up business and hire more employees this summer.
Venture capital investment in food-tech businesses remained stagnant in Q3, according to PitchBook. In a recent report, the data firm said “deal activity was consistent with the past several quarters” with $2.7 billion invested over 234 deals during the third quarter.