Doug Rauch, the former president of Trader Joe’s, is at work on a new venture that hopes to extract value from the food that grocery stores throw out.
In June, Rauch opened a new venture in Dorchester, Mass. called The Daily Table, a store that sells discounted food that’s slightly past its sell-by date.
According to Lindsay Abrams of Salon, 40 percent of the food produced each year in America is wasted, in part because supermarkets must throw it out if its sell-by date — a number that a report from the Natural Resources Defense Council and Harvard Law School found is nearly arbitrary — has passed.
Rauch and others argue that there’s nothing wrong with this food and that it could be used to solve the problems of hunger and food insecurity that many Americans face. Rauch further believes this unnecessary food waste can be turned into a profitable business venture.
Offering affordable, healthy food to the working poor — it’s a crazy enough idea that’s likely to work.
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