EAT UGLY!

 

Hello, lovely people!

A few weeks ago, during my research about living a zero waste lifestyle,I came across this super cool company called “Imperfect Produce”. I was drawn to the company initially because of the images of mangled fruits and veggies that you don’t normally see at grocery stores. I’ve been ordering from Imperfect for about 3 weeks now, and so far I am in love! As a college student, sometimes it can be hard to make time to eat the way I want to. Imperfect is a great solution to a lot of the problems I faced because healthy food is delivered to my door at an affordable price. Without further adieu, here is all you need to know about Imperfect Produce.

WHAT IS IT?

Imperfect Produce was founded in 2015 by Ben Simon, Ben Chesler and Ron Chase all of whom had prior experience in working to eradicate food waste in California. By combining their knowledge and experience, they realized that together they could make a huge impact on how we deal with food waste in this country and thus, Imperfect Produce was born!

It’s no secret that Americans tend to waste a lot of food. I know from working in a grocery store for the past 3 years that sometimes perfectly good food goes to waste for small imperfections or because a customer didn’t want it. Imperfect Produce is a company which aims to eradicate food waste one ugly veggie at a time.

In America, about 20% of the fruits and veggies grown will never make it to a market simply because they don’t “look right”. They are too small, oddly shaped, crooked, etc and even though there is nothing wrong with the food itself, it would be thrown away. We’re talking BILLIONS of pounds of perfectly good food being thrown away for purely cosmetic reasons. Imperfect takes these fruits and veggies and sells them for 30%-50% less than an average grocery store, and it’s all delivered right to your door!

 

HOW IT WORKS.

Once you sign up, you can choose from one of the four size boxes ( S- XL) that are available on their website. You can also choose what kind of produce you will receive, organic fruits and veggies, conventional fruits and veggies, all fruit, or all veggies. Every Friday before your next delivery, you will get an email from Imperfect prompting you to customize your box for the week. You can see what the default box looks like, and from there you can add and remove items as you wish. If for some reason you forget to customize your box for that week, you will just receive the default box.

Another thing I love about this company is that if you qualify for EBT/ SNAP Benefits etc, you can get an even more discounted price!

Unfortunately, Imperfect is only available to people living in California (Bay Area, Los Angeles County and Orange County). BUT, it is a very new company, and it is expanding quickly! I wouldn’t be surprised if they extended their reach in the near future. Even if you’re not in the area, keep checking the website; they might be in your neighborhood sooner than expected!

To learn more and sign up for Imperfect click here for their website!

As I have already said, I am a huge fan of this company and business model. Not only because it helps deal with food waste in this country, but also because it gives everyone the opportunity to eat healthily. I hope to see more companies like this in the future, with the needs of the consumer and the planet at the core of their business model.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you start eating ugly with me!

Stay fabulous,

Gianna