Circular Economy Collaboration & Co-Creation

Two Good, Marcus Samuelsson, Full Harvest Team Up to Fight Food Waste

The partnership between the yogurt brand, the celebrity chef and the food-rescue marketplace aims to inspire restaurants across the US to ﬁght food waste by using rescued produce on their menus.

Published 3 years ago | About a 4 minute read

Image: Two Good

Two Good® Yogurt has teamed up with James Beard Award-winning chef Marcus Samuelsson and Full Harvest to kick off a movement that highlights the critical role that food waste plays in the climate crisis. The partnership is calling on restaurants across the country to use rescued produce in their kitchens — a response to the reality that food waste is one of the single greatest contributors to climate change.

In the United States, 35 percent of the 229 million tons of available food went unsold or uneaten in 2019, according to ReFED. Full Harvest is working to solve the massive $2.5 billion food waste problem through the only B2B online marketplace for imperfect and surplus produce, connecting farmers to food and beverage manufacturers. By supplying restaurants with produce that would have otherwise been wasted and turning them into award-winning dishes, the campaign aims to help restaurants to make sustainable choices and normalize the consumption of otherwise wasted food at large.

Spearheading the campaign is Chef Samuelsson, who will use rescued produce from Full Harvest at his New York City restaurant, Red Rooster Harlem, during Earth Week (April 18-24). Samuelsson joins fellow celebrity chefs including Dan Barber and Andrew Zimmern who work to raise awareness and put a dent in the issue of food waste.

“Food waste directly impacts people and our planet, which is why as chefs we can be a vital part of ﬁnding solutions to eliminate it,” Samuelsson said. “I’m proud to be working with Two Good and Full Harvest to bring rescued produce into my kitchen, so that we can take this step towards driving awareness of one way restaurants can make our supply chain more sustainable. I encourage my friends and fellow chefs to join me in using rescued produce this month, and beyond, so that together we can make an impact on the startling amount of food that is wasted in the US.”

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Two Good and Chef Marcus are inviting restaurants nationwide to join the movement by emailing [email protected] in hopes that chefs will shift existing perceptions about food waste and inspire commitments to using rescued produce in the future.

“Our mission is to solve the massive food waste problem, so there is nothing more exciting for us than to encourage restaurants to use rescued food in their kitchens,” shared Christine Moseley, founder and CEO of Full Harvest. “It will take a movement of individuals, restaurants and brands to begin curbing food waste in the ﬁght against climate change.”

In late 2020, Two Good — part of Danone North America, a Certiﬁed B Corp — teamed up with Full Harvest to launch Two Good® Good Save™ yogurt — the ﬁrst dairy product to utilize Full Harvest's Veriﬁed Rescued Produce™, setting the standard for the emerging rescued foods market.

“As part of the B Corp community, we believe it’s important for brands to take actionable steps and to use their voice and efforts as a force for good, which for us at Two Good means helping combat the massive issue that is food waste,” shared Surbhi Martin, VP of Greek Yogurt & Functional Nutrition at Danone North America. “The unfortunate reality is that food waste has far-reaching consequences, particularly with its impact on our climate. If we collectively come together and reframe how we think about wasted food, we will not only make our systems more sustainable, but we can help address the food insecurity issue that has been exacerbated during the pandemic. Our hope is to inspire collective action through partnering with Chef Marcus Samuelsson and Full Harvest, and to provide one more avenue for our communities to stand up for solutions to food waste.”

In addition to being the right thing to do, an indisputable business case for restaurants to curb their food waste has been established: Research released in 2019 on behalf of Champions 12.3 found that for every $1 invested in programs to reduce kitchen food waste, restaurants on average saved $7 in operating costs.