GO See The City, an Orlando food waste reduction platform, is expanding to Gainesville. The platform helps connect restaurants with surplus food to customers and nonprofits, all part of owner Aneshai Smith’s vision for keeping food out of landfills and fighting food insecurity.
Smith said many restaurants are willing to help battle food insecurity and lower food waste, but they do not have a system in place.
“If we can prevent [leftover food] from going to the landfill, and [instead have] it going to mouths, that’s the goal,” Smith said in a phone interview. “That is the ultimate goal. Whether the restaurant chooses to do it with a discount, or they choose to divert it to the nearest nonprofit to them, the goal is to fight the food insecurity as well as lower the food waste production.”
The platform will partner with the city of Gainesville to forward the city’s zero waste objectives. In June, a city ordinance took effect requiring food retailers that occupy more than 25,000 square feet to divert their food waste according to a hierarchy. If there is leftover food, feeding hungry people is first priority, then feeding animals, providing for industrial uses and finally composting.
Starting Jan. 1, 2024, the same ordinance will apply to smaller businesses of at least 4,500 square feet, with a commercial kitchen of at least 1,000 square feet.
Around the same time the first ordinance took effect, the city began meeting with GO See The City to provide updates and talk about goals. One of those goals was to have at least 70 eateries signed up with the platform, a goal that has already been met.
Though many nonprofits and businesses have already onboarded, Smith said the platform’s expansion into Gainesville is still in its infancy, trying to build brand awareness with the community. The app has only been available for users to download for a few weeks, but Smith and her team are working to connect with the community and let people know about the discounts they could receive.
The app is free to use and available in the Android and Apple stores to provide access to free or discounted food when eateries have extra that they need to use up. The businesses can choose to either donate the leftovers to a local nonprofit or advertise it with a coupon for app users. Community members can use the invite code “Gainesville” to enter the app.
For restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores with delis, and any other eatery, Smith said the app helps generate additional foot traffic by spreading word of discounts.
Both businesses and nonprofits can sign up from the GO See the City website or by calling 352-900-1505. Businesses have the option of a gold, silver or bronze package for various prices depending on how many months they commit to, though Gainesville’s pilot program gives eateries the first few months for free for a limited time. For nonprofits, the sign-up is always free.
Smith said one of her favorite things about running GO See The City is the emails she receives from nonprofits that sign up, telling her about what their programs do and how the platform can help them.
“We don’t have to ask those questions,” she said. “But you know, they evolved. And I would love it if we found out something that we can help with. Even before the platform launched it. We were able to connect the dots.”
Sometimes, GO See The City does ask direct questions. The platform is looking for student groups, environmental organizations and food pantries that would be willing to partner in various ways. Smith hopes to be able to speak at student group events to spread awareness of the app, so more people can have access to low-priced food.
Smith also wants to meet with environmental groups to make sure her platform is working with them toward their goals, instead of stepping on toes as they work separately. Food pantries can let GO See The City know if they accept hot food donations, or only packaged and sealed products.
Before COVID-19, Smith owned and ran a grand opening business, but when the pandemic made grand openings impossible, she pivoted to help struggling restaurants. She created monthly themed food tours to highlight particular types of restaurants, such as Black-owned and women-owned, to increase foot traffic.
The food tour email blasts were called “Go See the City,” encouraging people to safely go out and see what was available, supporting local businesses.
In 2022, when pandemic restrictions had fully lifted, Smith turned the success of the food tours into the GO See The City app in Orlando. She wanted her app to be able to partner with the USDA and EPA to help them reduce food waste by half by 2030.
Since then, the platform has earned recognition from TechCrunch Include and Leading Cities, a nonprofit to help cities overcome societal problems like climate change, human equity and technology development.
Techstars, a leading pre-seed investor, has provided funding for the platform, and Gainesville discovered GO See The City through its participation in Leading Cities’ AcceliCITY Challenge. The platform is expanding in both Gainesville and Tulsa, Oklahoma.