These days, nearly everybody understands the benefit of locally grown organic produce. During the summer months, frequenting one’s local Farmers Market can be a great way to find some of the freshest and most flavorful produce available. However, when it's not the regular growing season, it can be difficult to find high-quality organic produce. Big-box stores and mega-chains carry a variety of these foods, but they can often be expensive - and many times much of the organically grown produce that is made never makes it to the consumers, because these big chains only buy certain kinds of product, and if there are any flaws - or perceived flaws - like mandarin oranges that are too big, or oddly shaped carrots, then they often just get wasted.
The solution to this quandary is found in the brand new company,
Imperfect Foods. The mission of imperfect Foods is to take foods that are excess and sell them cheaply two buyers in a given region. This means that any individual buyer is able to get fresh organic produce shipped directly to their door with little to no cost for shipping. Interested persons can receive a $10 voucher to try the service at no cost, by simply visiting
http://bit.ly/TryImperfect and enter their zip code to see if Imperfect Foods delivers in their area.
Imperfect Foods customers receive a weekly box of produce and other supplies - which rotate on a weekly basis because most if not all of this produce comes from local farms. They do also offer some boxed pantry items, many of which are discounted due to circumstances like an accidental over-purchased bulk order, or a change of product packaging. Customers save, on average, up to 30% off of what they’d pay for conventional produce, and while their shipping fee is modest (around $5 for a heavy box of refrigerated produce), orders above $60 currently qualify for free shipping, too.
“We live in a small town - just 10,000 people or so - and most services like this don’t deliver anywhere near us,” said Justin W., an Imperfect Foods Customer. He continued his review of Imperfect Foods, saying “I actually saw an ad for the company while visiting family in a larger Pennsylvania town, and I figured that I was targeted because of that location and that they’d not have any options where I lived, but I was surprised to see that they served my tiny town. Where we live, organic produce is a luxury that’s hard to find. When the farmers’ markets are operating, you can get organic-in-production-but-not-legally-qualified as organic produce from many local farmers, but for a good chunk of the year we’ve only got a Wal-Mart, and their selection is very limited and very mediocre at best. Imperfect Foods has been a very exciting way to get the produce we want to get at a fair price.” Justin said, “It’s essentially like a CSA - a community agriculture share, where you pay a fee, and then you get a box of produce each week - but with more options and the ability to tailor your box every week. They also have some interesting non-produce options of things like dairy and meat (and non-dairy and meat substitutes), as well as conventional produce, too.”
According to the company, around 40% of the produce produced in the US goes uneaten. This includes foods that have some visible “flaw” like being too large or shaped slightly oddly, and that food just goes to waste. Their mission is to prevent food from being wasted, which helps conserve resources, reduce emissions and carbon footprints, lower costs, increase the nutritional density of food, and more.
