Thirty-five-year-old visionary Jasmine Crowe is the self-described “do-gooder” behind the startup Goodr, a high-tech solution to address the dual challenges of food waste and hunger.
Crowe’s Atlanta-based Goodr is a food rescue (that’s the “r” in the name) app that connects businesses with local charities to seamlessly collect and distribute leftover food to people in need. The company uses blockchain technology to enable businesses to track and account for their donations, measure their community impact, see their real-time tax savings and analyze waste trends.
In April 2019, Crowe told Forbes that Goodr has so far kept more than 1 million pounds of food out of landfills, leading to more than 940,000 meals being provided to people in need, all the while saving its clients — companies such as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Georgia World Congress Center and Turner Broadcasting Systems — money through tax deductions.
Crowe was inspired to create the social responsibility-meets-technology venture during the nearly five years she spent feeding members of the homeless in her Atlanta community. A one-woman show, she solicited donations from foodservice purveyors and restaurants, picked up the donations and then cooked and served the food to those in need. That experience made her realize there was a much larger problem and that she could potentially solve it using technology and by establishing an actual business.
Moving forward, Crowe has plans to scale Goodr across the U.S., opening in 20 cities by the end of 2020. Ultimately, the goal is to take Goodr global.
