Too Good to Go app teams up with local restaurants to combat food waste

Too Good To Go, a company that calls itself a “marketplace for surplus food,” is teaming up with restaurants across Long Island to help combat food waste.

Customers search the mobile app for nearby businesses that have posted “surprise bags” — food that would have otherwise been thrown out. The discounted eats are available for pickup only at a time specified by the restaurant, with prices per bag ranging from $3.99 to $5.99. Everything, including payment, is done via the app, which is free to download. The restaurants choose what goes in each bag and set the price at about a third of the regular retail value, said Allie Denburg, the company's head of U.S. strategy and planning, with $1.79 from each order going to Too Good to Go. 

Long Island pizzerias, bagel stores and bakeries have a heavy presence on the app; other participating restaurants range from chains such as Philly Pretzel Factory, Duchess Cookies, Sobol and Island Empanada to Prince Umberto in Franklin Square, O Sole Mio in Stony Brook, Kick’n Chicken in Farmingdale and Karmic Grind in Locust Valley.

A recent surprise bag from Taglio pizzeria in Mineola included three specialty slices — a carne picante (with fresh mozzarella, hot sopressata, sweet Italian sausage), regularly $6; vodka romana, $5; and Buffalo romana, $6 — for $4.99. 

"We are getting a lot of customers coming in that maybe haven’t been here before," said Taglio co-owner Domenico Tolomeo. "So it helps us and it also helps people who have food insecurities and maybe don’t have enough money to spend on a $30 pie or $4 slice."

In the short time Taglio has been featured on the app, Tolomeo said the pizzeria has been selling out and considering bumping its bag count to at least 15 a day.

"On Long Island alone, how many people are there that are probably going to bed hungry? If I’m throwing out five, six pies a night, then I'm not helping in any way," Tolomeo said. 

Likewise, Philly Pretzel Factory in New Hyde Park, a participating restaurant on Too Good to Go since the end of last year, typically has three bags a day available Mondays to Thursdays. A recent $5.99 order through the app saw 20 freshly baked traditional pretzels, which normally would retail for $1.50 apiece (or $30). Co-owner Brigitte Louzeiro said it's a win-win way to use up leftover dough at the end of the night. 

"Not only do I save money in paying my dumpster company," Louzeiro said, "I feel like I'm doing something good in return and people get to know my product," too.

Too Good to Go launched in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2016. It reached the New York City metro area in 2020 and the Long Island market last spring. Today, it’s available in 17 countries around the world and in 12 U.S. cities. About 80,000 meals were saved from waste in Nassau and Suffolk counties over the past year, according to Denburg.