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Food Cowboy app helps charities get passed-over produce onto plates faster

By Pamela Constable July 4, 2014 

Behind a Mexican produce market in Northeast Washington on Tuesday, three laborers were stacking boxes of slightly bruised tomatoes, bananas and oranges next to a dumpster. A white refrigerated van pulled up, and driver Brett Meyers jumped out. To him, the imperfect produce was a precious find, and he was just in time to sort the items and salvage them.

“These are great,” said Meyers, inspecting the tomatoes. “A little too black,” he said, discarding some of the bananas. “Look — these are almost blue,” he noted with a scowl as he pointed to a bag of moldy oranges and then tossed it into the trash. “We can’t take the risk of people getting sick,” he said.

Meyers, who runs Nourish Now, a private food charity in Rockville, had already picked up a dozen boxes of chilled broccoli from a Korean warehouse manager across the street. Now he had four more crates to stash in his van. Within two hours, the produce would be boxed with other donations, and by the next day, it would be delivered to needy families in Maryland.

The day’s scavenging success was based on more than luck. Meyers also had some high-tech help from Food Cowboy, an organization that uses a mobile app to link facilities with excess produce with groups that can make sure it reaches hungry people while still fresh.