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Oct. 6, 2026

From Cupcakes to Community: The Unexpected Inspiring Pragmatism Behind EETZ Rescue

From Cupcakes to Community: The Unexpected Inspiring Pragmatism Behind EETZ Rescue
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David Stenson, a social conscious pragmatist, turned an app first built to help his daughter sell cupcakes into EETZ Rescue, a tech-driven way to connect surplus food with people and organizations that need it. His work shows how compassion, practical systems, and entrepreneurship can reduce waste, answer human need, and grow an idea far beyond its humble start. By linking donors, nonprofits, and logistics in real time, EETZ turns excess into access and helps communities respond faster to hunger

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What's working on purpose anyway? Each week, we ponder the

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answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose

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in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide

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guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we

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all want, working on purpose. Now, here's your host, Dr.

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Elise Cortez.

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Welcome back to the Working on Purpose program, which has

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been brought to you with passion and pride since February

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of 2015. Thanks for tuning in again this week. Great

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to have you. I'm your host, Dr. Elise Cortez. I'm

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an organizational psychologist, workforce advisor, VISTA chair, and the founder

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of Gusto Now. We're your partner in growing your people, leadership,

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and culture. We are all about helping you unleash the

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energy and capability for people by accessing their gusto, the

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life force for performance that drives commitment, perseverance, and genuine

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ownership of a shared mission. You can learn more about

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us and how we can work together at gusto-now.com or

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my personal site, EliseCortez.com. In today's program, we have with

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us David Stenson. He is the founder and chief evangelist

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of Eats Rescue, a Dallas-based Uber-style on-demand food logistics company

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focused on redistributing surplus food. He is combining his technology

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and food systems, POS, management and logistics experience to build

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a scalable food marketplace that redirects surplus food to veterans

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and families with young children instead of landfills. His vision

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is simple, ensure every pound of surplus is fed to people,

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composted or converted into energy never wasted. He joins us

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today from Dallas. David, a hearty welcome to Working on Purpose.

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Yes, thank you, Elise. Thank you very much.

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So great to have you. Happy to meet you. We

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met at Conscious Capitalism and of course when I Heard

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what you were up to. What did I do? I

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immediately said, you've got to come on my podcast and

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talk about it.

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Here we are.

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Yeah, so I want to start with something a little playful.

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As you were talking to me, you kept saying that

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you were pragmatic. You were working on solving practical problems. And,

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of course, I'm the purpose gal, the meeting and purpose gal,

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and I kept wanting to inject purpose into this. So

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I've kind of come to call you a socially conscious pragmatist.

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Is that good enough for you? Does that work for you?

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That works. That works. Well said. I wouldn't have thought

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of that myself.

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As I mentioned before we got in here, I love creating,

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you know, the new titles for my guests as I

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see them, as I experience them. So if we go

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under that, then, David, what is your philosophy for the

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way you're showing up in the world? There's a lot

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going on, even just in your full bio. There's a

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lot going on in you. Yeah.

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Yeah. So, you know, I think we all kind of

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grow up with values, right? Family, religious, teachings, you know,

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life experiences. And some of us are more socially conscious.

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And I think that's what's happened to me. So the

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socially conscious piece wants to do something for the common good.

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And then you have the pragmatist, which is now I

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have to do it.

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I have to just actually have to make something, you know,

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look for something concrete that actually I can put my

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teeth into. Right.

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And so, you know, back in.

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College, I used to see food get thrown away in

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the restaurants and, You know, you try to do something

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and it just wasn't the right time. Right. So but

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now with all the technology and logistics and apps and

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things like that, it just makes it so much easier.

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So for me, it's like, you know, you have a

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you have a you have a mission and then you

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have to make a choice and you have to do

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the choice to do something. So something has been enough,

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even if it's the you know, we don't know what

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the right decision is sometimes when we start something, but just.

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taking it from going from the trash and giving it

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to somebody in need seems.

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Like a no-brainer.

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Yeah, I hate wasting food as well. David, I grew

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up in the restaurant business and saw just huge amounts

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of waste. I hated seeing that. And so I share

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that same sort of sense of tragedy with that. And

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then along those lines, I can't help but asking you, David,

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I saw this in your bio, that you are someone

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who lives with the concept of food as medicine. What

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does that mean?

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Well, you know, I mean, the human body is a machine, right? And,

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you know, in many ways, it's what you put into

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it is what you get out, right?

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And so we look at our cars and our engines and,

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you know, in business, and we see that there's simply

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that we've got, you know, what you put into it,

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and sometimes even just the quality of the fuel, right,

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is how the the engine will produce or will, you know,

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how it will keep itself maintained.

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Same thing with food.

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I mean, we see that, you know, we know that

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if you eat well and you, you know, and you exercise,

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then you have a better lifespan, right?

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I mean, that's what we believe.

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I think the data is there to show that. And

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so food and medicine is, you know, your food is medicine.

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If you're taking care of yourself and you're getting the

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right food, your body is going to produce better results, right?

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You're going to be in better shape. You're going to

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be in better health. finally, you have less health problems.

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And of course, that helps keep us out of the,

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you know, the hospitals and things like that. So I think,

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you know, this medicine is, you know, has got a

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lot of publicity recently. But some people have always been there. And,

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you know, and like yourself, you run, you know, you

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take care to eat the right food. We need to

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take care of more care of what we're putting in

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our body. And that's, that's what that starts with.

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I 100% agree with that. And maybe as, I don't

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know if it's a slight deviation or just part of it,

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but we've got to talk about cupcakes, right? This is

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where things really got started. I was delighted to hear

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that this whole concept that you created, David, really was

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for the love of your daughter. She had a project

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at school about fundraising and something about cupcakes, and you

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created this app to help her sell more cupcakes. Tell

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us the story.

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Yeah, I was at Oracle at the time, and... She

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wanted to start her own business, and she was 12,

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and I had only one daughter. I had five boys, and,

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of course, I wanted to do something special for her.

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So we didn't want her on social media, you know, selling.

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Or to build a website. It was kind of old-fashioned.

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So we put together a mobile app.

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That allowed her to take a picture of her baked-up goods,

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put a price, post them for sale. And her friends

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from school and teachers and people in the community and

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churches couldn't download.

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The app for free.

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They could see what she was making. They could pay

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for it. They could text her securely inside the app

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when they wanted to deliver it. And so we just,

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you know, built that for her. And, and she started

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doing it in January of 2020. And, you know, I

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don't think we thought much about, you know, the bigger

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aspect other than, you know, there's tens of thousands of

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people selling things and, you know, and social media and

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Facebook and Instagram and things like that. So, think much

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beyond that. It was really about something special for her

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when she was 13.

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Okay, so now you've got this technology. When did you

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start to notice there were other uses for this, like

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even where you're headed now? How did that show up

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for you?

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Yeah, so during COVID, you know, we saw people standing

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in lines, right? And, you know, And at the same time,

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we knew that food was going thrown out. We actually

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had a family ministry of feeding the homeless. And we

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had met some people that now become friends with us.

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Scott Gray and some of his friends from the church.

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And they were feeding hundreds of people a week. When

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COVID sets in, a lot of food from the restaurants

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and from the grocery stores was getting backed up. There

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was nobody to pick up because the volunteers were all sheltered, basically.

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They didn't want to go out or they weren't available

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to go out. And so we saw food going thrown away,

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but at the same time we saw people standing in lines.

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And so that's when we started to think of like,

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how can we bring these together to solve, you know,

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to lessen the problem maybe.

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And, you know, and we didn't.

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Quite understand the size of the problem at the time, but,

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you know, using social media to, you know, to post

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food that was available seemed like, you know, a good

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thing to do.

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And of course that's what we built into the app.

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It's very much a, it's very much a system and

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notifying when food's available is Locally.

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Okay, let's back up just a little bit here, because

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you and I have talked about this before in other conversations,

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and I think it will be great for our listeners

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and viewers to hear more about this. You mentioned the

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food ministry program that you were doing together at home.

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Help us understand what that was. That was a pretty in-depth,

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intense effort, it seems to me.

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Well, we had a lot of kids, and so you

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kind of want to break up in the right way.

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You want to teach them. You want to humble them.

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You want to show them that some people are suffering,

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and you can have a part in helping them find

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some joy, find some hope. We would go out nights

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and weekends during break to treat sandwiches. I mentioned Scott.

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I mentioned Sandy, but there was several... around us at

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the time that were doing a lot of work helping people,

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specifically unsheltered people.

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And so the kids kind of came up around that.

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And I think it was an opportunity for them to

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see that people are suffering, that we were in a

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good position and we had a way to help.

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And so.

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It was a way to educate our children, but at

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the same time help the community. So it was, again,

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it's not as easy as just one decision, right?

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Mm-hmm. And what's the age ranges of your children now?

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30 to 14.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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All right.

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So the idea of food insecurity, So let me just

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situate this. I mentioned this to you when we first

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met that I have a friend here in town, Owen Lynch,

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and he really cares about food deserts and things like that.

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And it's focused on this idea of food insecurity. And

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I don't know if that is as important to you

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as just the pragmatics of it, but what about the

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connection between food waste and food security? Is there something

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there for you that grabs you?

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Yeah, it seems to me there are two unnecessary negatives, right?

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They both subtract.

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There's nothing good about either one of them, but together

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they actually solve a problem that one probably can't be

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solved without the other. We're new at this, right? We're

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just learning how to do some of this and adding

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technology to the process. But there's tens of thousands of

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volunteers every day.

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There's millions. I mean, there's 60 million people that volunteer

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a year.

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There's 200,000 organizations. There's 60,000 food pantries that are actually

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working to solve food insecurity. And a lot of this

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is trying to do this with food that's currently going

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to waste. Some of this is with purchased food, but

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a lot of this is just donated food. But it

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turns out that they're not solving the problem, right? I mean,

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the problem is still there. 35% of food is still

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going to waste. And so if you just try to

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think of how you can bring them together and connect them,

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and you can turn two negatives, but two things that

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don't have any value singly, but together they actually leverage

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to solving one of the other, right?

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That's kind of the way we see it, right?

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All this food is available to feed our homeless and

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our food insecure, but it's currently just getting thrown in

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the trash. There's no way to know that food's available

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at any time of day, how much it is, where

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it is, what time it needs to be picked up.

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Those are all the things that we're solving for.

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So this is where my purpose button gets delighted, David.

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And I know this is, you know, that's, you keep

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correcting me and saying, but this isn't really not about purpose.

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It's being solving, you know, a practical problem, but here's

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where it gets really interesting for me. One of the

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things about purpose and how it works is that when

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you are really attuned to what you notice, you start

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to see things in a way that nobody else can

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see them. So seeing those two double negatives, I don't

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see that. Maybe Owen does, my friend. I don't see

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those two double negatives. So for you to be able

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to see something like that, put those things together, and

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then do something about it, that is the ultimate expression

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of a purpose. And that's what makes it unique. And

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that's what allows people when they choose to be obedient

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to it and to give themselves over to it, allows

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them to make the impact that many people really crave.

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Yeah, I mean, I think we all crave some purpose, right?

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At some point in our lives, it becomes more important.

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But the environment is important and feeding our community is important, right?

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I mean, the environment issue is that it's land, labor, water,

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electricity to throw out a ton of food every day

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from everywhere, every store, every restaurant, every grocery store has

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some type of waste. And that's just on that side.

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There's waste at the farm, there's waste at the transportation system, manufacturing, processing.

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And at the same time, our communities are healthier If

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we're eating better, especially young children, if they get into

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the habit of eating good food and fresh food at

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a young age, it has.

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A long-term impact on their health. I really don't see

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them separately.

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I see them as being part of the same system,

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but also so intertwined that you can't actually separate them.

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There's no way to separate these two.

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Now that I've looked at it this way, there's an

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impact for the environment and for young children and for families.

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Right. This is, you know, this is for me, this

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is the way to solve. This has become, you know,

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our life mission.

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You know, here we have people that are very passionate

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about feeding people on the team and very people that

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are very passionate about food waste. And this is kind

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of their sweet spot where they say, you know, we're

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representing both.

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And that's, you know, that's what we get up every

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day today.

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Okay, so you and I are from very, we're literally

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from the opposite coasts. You're from Boston. I'm from Oregon. Portland,

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Oregon is generally my stomping grounds, further east. And I

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told you that when we met that, you know, we

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as Oregonians, we do pride ourselves in being tree huggers

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and granola crunchers. That's who we are. So when I

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first moved from Seattle to Dallas 24 years ago, I

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was abhorred that at that time Plano, one of the suburbs,

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didn't recycle at all.

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Right.

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It was amazing to me. I was like, how can

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you not do this, right? And then going back further, David,

302
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when I was in my mid-20s, you and I both

303
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speak Spanish and Portuguese, and I lived in Brazil. I

304
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was there during the Rio Earth Summit when literally people,

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representatives from around the world came to gather in Rio

306
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de Janeiro, which they cleaned up tremendously for that gathering,

307
00:14:55.250 --> 00:14:57.830
by the way, to talk about problems around the world

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related to the environment, to climate, etc., And it really

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stuck with me that, wow, you have something that has

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garnered the attention of people from around the world. This

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is important. So now that you now layer in the

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environmental piece to what you're doing, it's even stronger, certainly

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for me.

314
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Yeah, it's tough to untangle it, right? It really, you know,

315
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there's food going to waste unnecessarily, right? It could feed people, right?

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And there are people standing in lines. And there are

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food deserts in the United States.

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And so a.

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Marketplace solves this.

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It just makes sense.

321
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I mean, again, if we just think about it a

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little bit more, if we pick at it, we pull

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at it, we stretch it, why not use one to

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solve the other?

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Because the technology is there today. It wasn't there years ago.

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I worked in a bar in Boston at the Purple

327
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Share Market on the Black Rose in college. And they

328
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threw up, you know, the Boston's best clam chowder, potatoes

329
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and rice every day. And I went to the owner

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and this great guy, Albie Glenn. And I said, Albie,

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would you donate this food to the to Rosie's place?

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You know, the homeless. And he said, sure, absolutely. Like

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it's going in the trash.

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Take it.

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And so, you know, I was doing this for about

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a month. And Mr. Glenn came up to me and

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he said, hey, David, are you donating that food? I said, yeah, sure.

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He said I could because a lot of this happens

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at 2 o'clock in the morning when I was leaving.

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And I just take it outside or I take it

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over to the homeless shelter over in South Boston. And

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he said, well, you know, I've had to buy these

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to-go containers.

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Three times in the last month. He's like.

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you can have the food, but you're going to have

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to pay me for the to-go containers.

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You know, as a student, I was like, well, that's

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the end of that business. Like, you know, the will

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is there.

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But there wasn't the economics behind it, right? And so

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I stopped doing it. And, you know, and I think

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today what we've seen is restaurants are interested in donating

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and that what we've proven out is that people will

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bring the containers to those restaurants to get that food,

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which is really cool because now we can do this

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at scale and the restaurants.

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Driver before this can be done today over the marketplace.

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I love it. I love, I get so inspired by

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these kinds of ideas, David. So happy to have you on.

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Let's grab our first break, unless there's some viewers to

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think about what we've been talking about so far. I'm

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your host, Dr. Elise Cortez. We're on the air with

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David Stinson, who is the founder and chief evangelist of

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Eats Rescue, a Dallas-based Uber-style on-demand food logistics company focused

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on redistributing surplus food. We'll continue the conversation after the break.

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Thank you.

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Dr.

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Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose,

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an inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies visioneer for

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greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose-inspired leadership and meaning-infused

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cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce.

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To learn more or to invite Elise to speak to

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00:18:17.210 --> 00:18:21.890
your organization, please visit her at EliseCortez.com. Let's talk about

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how to get your employees working on purpose.

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This is Working on Purpose with Dr. Elise Cortez.

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To reach our program today or to open a conversation

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00:18:35.789 --> 00:18:42.349
with Elise, send an email to Elise, A-L-I-S-E, at EliseCortez.com. Now,

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00:18:42.670 --> 00:18:44.250
back to Working on Purpose.

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00:18:45.470 --> 00:18:50.900
Thank you for staying with us and welcome back to

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Working on Purpose. I'm your host, Dr. Elise Cortez, as

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I am dedicated to helping create a world where organizations

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thrive because their people thrive. They're led by inspirational leaders

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that help them find and contribute their greatness. And we

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do business that betters the world. I keep researching and

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writing my own books. So one of my latest came out.

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It's called The Great Revitalization, How Activating Meaning and Purpose

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Can Radically Enliven Your Business. And I wrote it to

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help leaders understand today's very discerning workforce. What do they

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want and need from you to give their best and

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stick around? And then I provide you 22 best practices

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to equip you in your leadership in your culture to

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provide that for them. You can find my books on

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Amazon or my personal site, EliseCortez.com. If you are just

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joining us, my guest is David Stenson. He's the founder

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and chief evangelist of Eats Rescue, where the vision is

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to ensure every pound of food surplus is fed to people, composted,

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or converted into energy, never wasted. So now, I think, David,

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we've laid the groundwork for, okay, why this is important,

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where it came from. Let's talk about the mechanics of it.

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00:19:47.329 --> 00:19:51.829
So I really love, it's delightful. that you describe your

401
00:19:51.930 --> 00:19:54.849
approach as the Uber idea for food rescue. So let's

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00:19:54.890 --> 00:19:57.779
get into how does it actually work, the guts of it.

403
00:19:58.720 --> 00:19:59.039
Okay.

404
00:20:00.579 --> 00:20:05.740
Well, so basically what we saw was people were standing

405
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in line and Food is going to waste.

406
00:20:08.740 --> 00:20:12.130
And so connecting the demand of the supply. Right.

407
00:20:13.549 --> 00:20:17.450
And today there's marketplaces that are very efficient at sending

408
00:20:17.470 --> 00:20:21.009
notifications out. So we've built a mobile app that notifies

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00:20:21.569 --> 00:20:23.390
nonprofits and people when food.

410
00:20:23.230 --> 00:20:26.630
Is nearby and available. This can be coming from catering events.

411
00:20:26.690 --> 00:20:27.470
It can be coming from.

412
00:20:28.190 --> 00:20:31.349
Restaurants, there are restaurant chains, sort of bagel chain there that,

413
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you know, tries to donate their bagels every day.

414
00:20:34.769 --> 00:20:37.170
They have a tough time getting people to schedule, you know,

415
00:20:37.210 --> 00:20:37.890
scheduled and.

416
00:20:37.930 --> 00:20:41.619
Getting there on a Monday night. And sometimes what happens

417
00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:44.319
is they just, they're volunteer organizations, so sometimes they're not

418
00:20:44.359 --> 00:20:48.380
showing up on time. Or they're delayed or they just

419
00:20:48.400 --> 00:20:50.339
can't show up and the volunteers aren't getting there, but

420
00:20:50.380 --> 00:20:51.579
that food then would go to waste.

421
00:20:51.619 --> 00:20:52.920
And so what we've.

422
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Developed is an easy way for them to be notified

423
00:20:56.880 --> 00:20:59.220
And if you are not able to make it, then

424
00:20:59.259 --> 00:21:03.140
you can cancel that, and then somebody else can go

425
00:21:03.160 --> 00:21:05.400
in your place, basically, that sends out an additional notification.

426
00:21:05.420 --> 00:21:07.359
So you get these notifications from LinkedIn all the time,

427
00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:09.440
at least, right? Somebody's just done.

428
00:21:09.339 --> 00:21:11.640
A post to Facebook. It's the same thing. So you

429
00:21:11.660 --> 00:21:13.970
get a notification on your phone that says, hey, this

430
00:21:14.049 --> 00:21:14.690
is available.

431
00:21:14.970 --> 00:21:16.789
You'd be able to see what it is, the amount,

432
00:21:16.809 --> 00:21:18.380
the time of day it needs to be picked up,

433
00:21:18.690 --> 00:21:20.670
where it is exactly, how close it is.

434
00:21:21.049 --> 00:21:23.119
We put some mapping in there for that. and then

435
00:21:23.140 --> 00:21:24.859
you'd be able to claim it. And you would be

436
00:21:24.900 --> 00:21:26.700
the only one to see exactly where it is, but

437
00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:29.099
you'd see a general area for it.

438
00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:34.339
So that process there tracks the food from the origination

439
00:21:34.400 --> 00:21:37.480
of it, the donor, through the nonprofits into the community.

440
00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:39.720
And then the people that.

441
00:21:39.619 --> 00:21:42.910
Are getting notified at the end user, the recipient, also

442
00:21:43.190 --> 00:21:45.829
use the mobile app. And so it's kind of the B2B2C,

443
00:21:45.869 --> 00:21:48.410
but we're tracking it and generating a receipt so it's

444
00:21:48.450 --> 00:21:50.630
an accurate amount of the food and the impact that

445
00:21:50.690 --> 00:21:53.740
it's making. on the people that's finally getting the food.

446
00:21:55.200 --> 00:21:58.140
Okay, so you make that sound so simple. We just

447
00:21:58.160 --> 00:22:01.529
created an app and it does this stuff. I think

448
00:22:01.569 --> 00:22:04.890
it's a little more complex than that. So what's interesting

449
00:22:04.930 --> 00:22:07.690
to me then, so clearly the parties have to be

450
00:22:07.750 --> 00:22:10.809
part of on the app. But then if you do

451
00:22:10.849 --> 00:22:13.289
compare it to the Uber style, we've all taken enough

452
00:22:13.390 --> 00:22:15.950
Ubers in our lives to know that when the driver

453
00:22:15.990 --> 00:22:19.130
is driving us someplace, they will be pinged with another ring,

454
00:22:19.170 --> 00:22:22.099
with another possible ride. So they can choose to say,

455
00:22:22.200 --> 00:22:25.180
I'll take it, or they decline it. So then that

456
00:22:25.220 --> 00:22:27.279
must be, if you're going to have an Uber-style app,

457
00:22:27.319 --> 00:22:31.160
that means I've got 1,000 pounds of beef that I

458
00:22:31.180 --> 00:22:34.309
need to get rid of here. And somebody says immediately, yeah,

459
00:22:34.349 --> 00:22:38.750
I'll take that. But what happens if somebody doesn't? What

460
00:22:38.769 --> 00:22:42.789
happens if they don't actually, nobody said, no, there's no takers?

461
00:22:43.750 --> 00:22:48.720
Yeah, so it goes back to notifications. So if you

462
00:22:48.859 --> 00:22:49.210
think of.

463
00:22:50.670 --> 00:22:56.670
Yesterday was 55 boxes of mixed proteins and produce given

464
00:22:56.730 --> 00:23:00.740
out from three local stores. They bring that into a

465
00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:03.940
central area. They post out that there's 55 boxes of food.

466
00:23:05.660 --> 00:23:08.529
Those boxes are probably 50 to 70 pounds per box.

467
00:23:09.490 --> 00:23:13.140
And They'll put it out 55 boxes, one box per family.

468
00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:16.000
Now, 55 families will claim the boxes.

469
00:23:16.079 --> 00:23:18.519
It's in the app. It'll be green. They can see

470
00:23:18.579 --> 00:23:21.440
it's available. They'll see a general idea of where it is.

471
00:23:21.460 --> 00:23:24.920
They'll see the pictures of the food that they're donating,

472
00:23:25.420 --> 00:23:26.359
and then the people.

473
00:23:26.200 --> 00:23:26.630
Will claim it.

474
00:23:27.180 --> 00:23:31.240
If one of those 55 people is on their way

475
00:23:31.289 --> 00:23:33.890
and the car doesn't start or they can't get there

476
00:23:33.910 --> 00:23:36.930
at 8 o'clock at night or 3.30 in the afternoon,

477
00:23:36.970 --> 00:23:40.079
whatever time it is, They can cancel inside the app,

478
00:23:40.380 --> 00:23:43.920
and that automatically then reposts out to the same area.

479
00:23:43.960 --> 00:23:45.960
So then what happens is you get a very efficient

480
00:23:46.019 --> 00:23:47.980
way of getting people to come in to get that

481
00:23:47.980 --> 00:23:48.539
55 boxes.

482
00:23:49.200 --> 00:23:51.960
That's all. And that happens in scale at, say, a

483
00:23:51.980 --> 00:23:52.900
large grocer also.

484
00:23:54.019 --> 00:23:57.220
They have food that they give away as a scheduled

485
00:23:57.869 --> 00:24:00.730
donation at 8 a.m., but by 10 a.m. they might

486
00:24:00.750 --> 00:24:03.859
have another two pallets. They can post that food in

487
00:24:03.900 --> 00:24:05.420
the app and to the.

488
00:24:05.359 --> 00:24:08.859
Nonprofits that are nearby to them. And one of those nonprofits.

489
00:24:08.359 --> 00:24:10.240
Will see it, see how much it is, see what

490
00:24:10.259 --> 00:24:13.220
vehicle they need to bring, and they'll claim it.

491
00:24:13.660 --> 00:24:15.240
If they have to cancel, it just goes on and

492
00:24:15.339 --> 00:24:16.059
on and on.

493
00:24:16.140 --> 00:24:19.940
That notification system is built so that it continues to

494
00:24:19.980 --> 00:24:23.299
get it until that food is taken, is claimed, and

495
00:24:23.339 --> 00:24:23.650
picked up.

496
00:24:24.660 --> 00:24:27.920
Okay, let's talk a few numbers next. Whatever show that

497
00:24:27.960 --> 00:24:31.829
is when they say, let's do the numbers. So how

498
00:24:32.049 --> 00:24:34.390
many users are on this app right now?

499
00:24:35.829 --> 00:24:37.279
We have over 6,000 downloads.

500
00:24:37.410 --> 00:24:42.500
We've got 400 plus five-star reviews.

501
00:24:43.579 --> 00:24:44.039
Wow.

502
00:24:44.339 --> 00:24:47.200
It's only five stars, actually, which is very exciting. But

503
00:24:47.529 --> 00:24:48.829
people are really just.

504
00:24:50.599 --> 00:24:52.500
Static, that they don't have to stand in line.

505
00:24:52.839 --> 00:24:56.359
The organizations, the nonprofits that use it, like to receive

506
00:24:56.380 --> 00:24:58.019
food and get rid of it. You know, sometimes they're

507
00:24:58.059 --> 00:25:00.660
working with a lot of pantries, but these are small

508
00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:04.109
organizations that sometimes don't have a dedicated space. And so

509
00:25:04.130 --> 00:25:07.250
they're picking up and then posting, and it immediately goes

510
00:25:07.289 --> 00:25:09.130
to people that need it. So within an hour, this

511
00:25:09.170 --> 00:25:11.890
food that's fresh is going out. And in Texas heat,

512
00:25:11.930 --> 00:25:14.539
you know, that, you know, salad doesn't last very long, right?

513
00:25:14.920 --> 00:25:15.920
And there's no place to put it.

514
00:25:15.980 --> 00:25:18.789
I mean, you know, there's moved into storage and waited

515
00:25:18.809 --> 00:25:21.289
for the next day or the second two days later when.

516
00:25:21.210 --> 00:25:25.329
They're going to donate food. And even the grocery stores

517
00:25:25.349 --> 00:25:27.049
that use this, they.

518
00:25:26.970 --> 00:25:29.960
Might have somebody picking up Monday through Friday, but on

519
00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:33.039
Saturday morning they've got pallets starting to stack up and

520
00:25:33.079 --> 00:25:35.809
those pallets don't go out until Monday. And so that's

521
00:25:36.470 --> 00:25:39.730
might have to be moved into refrigeration. Many times it's not,

522
00:25:39.930 --> 00:25:42.009
and so they just don't have space for it, right?

523
00:25:42.029 --> 00:25:45.089
This is just-in-time inventory management, right?

524
00:25:45.109 --> 00:25:46.730
They're getting just what they need to put it out

525
00:25:46.750 --> 00:25:51.779
on the floor. There's not a lot of backspace for it.

526
00:25:52.859 --> 00:25:56.059
All of that is easier with a push notification technology

527
00:25:56.079 --> 00:25:57.000
system that we built in.

528
00:25:57.059 --> 00:25:59.779
It's a proprietary system, and.

529
00:25:59.720 --> 00:26:04.859
We use some AI influences and some algorithms to make

530
00:26:04.880 --> 00:26:08.720
this more efficient, basically, so that this works efficiently and

531
00:26:08.839 --> 00:26:12.319
gets the food picked up immediately from the nonprofits that

532
00:26:12.359 --> 00:26:16.359
nearest by that have the same values, you know, a

533
00:26:16.420 --> 00:26:18.740
donation system, whatever they're using, you know, to kind of

534
00:26:19.240 --> 00:26:20.869
make a decision on who's going to get this food.

535
00:26:20.880 --> 00:26:22.490
We manage that. We allow them to manage it.

536
00:26:22.930 --> 00:26:25.089
And then they show, they can turn around and show

537
00:26:25.329 --> 00:26:27.930
exactly with an accurate count of what they picked up.

538
00:26:27.950 --> 00:26:30.769
So the pounds are accurate. The type of food is accurate.

539
00:26:31.109 --> 00:26:33.640
All that helps. you know, the businesses and the.

540
00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:35.960
Nonprofits, and finally, the people that don't have to stand

541
00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:37.579
in line waiting for food, right?

542
00:26:38.119 --> 00:26:41.619
Yeah, yeah. And when I think about the impact, tell

543
00:26:41.640 --> 00:26:43.680
me if I have these numbers right. I think I

544
00:26:43.779 --> 00:26:48.410
understand that you have been able to move 1.6 million

545
00:26:48.450 --> 00:26:50.769
pounds of food in just the last 12-month period. Is

546
00:26:50.789 --> 00:26:51.150
that right?

547
00:26:51.809 --> 00:26:52.230
Yeah.

548
00:26:52.549 --> 00:26:54.950
And so, you know, I've done a lot of pickups

549
00:26:55.509 --> 00:26:57.529
during COVID. We were doing a lot of pickups. We

550
00:26:57.549 --> 00:27:02.190
had a three kids that could drive. We had two vehicles.

551
00:27:02.990 --> 00:27:04.750
So we did a lot of that. I still do

552
00:27:04.809 --> 00:27:06.750
some of it. I do Sundays. I do some days

553
00:27:06.789 --> 00:27:08.769
in the week. I also go with the teams to

554
00:27:08.789 --> 00:27:12.509
go see what they're doing. It's kind of like Christmas

555
00:27:12.609 --> 00:27:21.609
every day. There's different things that come from different stores,

556
00:27:21.650 --> 00:27:24.170
and it's really interesting to see what that food looks like.

557
00:27:25.309 --> 00:27:27.569
But the organizations and the volunteers are the ones that

558
00:27:27.609 --> 00:27:29.390
actually do the heavy lifting, right?

559
00:27:31.089 --> 00:27:31.509
Literary.

560
00:27:32.450 --> 00:27:33.819
Yeah, it is. We're just a tool.

561
00:27:33.880 --> 00:27:35.940
You know, this is, you know, the Bronze Age, we had,

562
00:27:36.220 --> 00:27:39.279
you know, Bronze Age tools. This is a tool for

563
00:27:39.319 --> 00:27:42.829
this century, for this moment, where notifications and mobile phones

564
00:27:42.869 --> 00:27:45.970
are prevalent everywhere, right? So let's build something that works

565
00:27:46.049 --> 00:27:49.900
at scale, right, to solve the problems. that we know

566
00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:51.819
that's there right at food waste. They're doing the best

567
00:27:51.859 --> 00:27:53.279
job they can. I mean, no one's saying, Hey, I'm

568
00:27:53.299 --> 00:27:55.220
going to make extra to throw it away.

569
00:27:55.380 --> 00:27:57.759
Right. There's a value for that food, but it's really,

570
00:27:57.779 --> 00:27:59.359
they're doing the best they can. So we're just a

571
00:27:59.400 --> 00:28:00.519
tool in.

572
00:28:00.460 --> 00:28:03.619
This system that allows them to do this more efficiently,

573
00:28:03.640 --> 00:28:05.970
at least the donation part and the tracking part. And

574
00:28:05.990 --> 00:28:08.930
then finally, and making the impact upon the families, the

575
00:28:08.970 --> 00:28:11.109
communities that they want. So they can choose that at

576
00:28:11.150 --> 00:28:13.589
a store level. They can choose that at a restaurant level,

577
00:28:13.609 --> 00:28:15.940
at a store level, you know, a grocery store, um,

578
00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:18.849
And so that's, I don't know if that answers your

579
00:28:18.869 --> 00:28:21.309
question or not at least, but it's the technology really.

580
00:28:21.329 --> 00:28:24.130
It's not us so much as it is the organizations

581
00:28:24.150 --> 00:28:25.190
that are making it all possible.

582
00:28:26.789 --> 00:28:28.930
Well, you know, that's one thing that I certainly, you know,

583
00:28:29.009 --> 00:28:31.779
am grappling with is how can we better use technology

584
00:28:31.839 --> 00:28:34.420
to scale what we do? So it's, and I really

585
00:28:34.539 --> 00:28:36.640
appreciate and applaud that you've done that. You've actually used

586
00:28:36.660 --> 00:28:39.019
technology to make this bigger impact, this bigger effort.

587
00:28:40.269 --> 00:28:42.930
Right. I love every day. I mean, at least every day,

588
00:28:43.009 --> 00:28:45.190
every day, every day is Friday and Monday and Sunday.

589
00:28:45.210 --> 00:28:50.140
You know, it's the team really the people that use it,

590
00:28:50.460 --> 00:28:50.940
the people.

591
00:28:50.779 --> 00:28:53.359
That volunteer, the 65 million people that volunteered in the

592
00:28:53.559 --> 00:28:54.440
United States last year.

593
00:28:54.460 --> 00:28:58.140
Probably half of those are food related. You know, those

594
00:28:58.180 --> 00:29:01.230
are packing boxes. And so this is a tool for

595
00:29:01.269 --> 00:29:01.869
those volunteers.

596
00:29:02.250 --> 00:29:05.069
That want to be involved to help solve these problems

597
00:29:05.089 --> 00:29:07.589
that we have, you know, the food waste and food insecurity,

598
00:29:07.970 --> 00:29:11.470
to get involved, to stay close, to get notified, to see,

599
00:29:11.490 --> 00:29:13.630
you know, where just maybe 10 or 15 minutes of

600
00:29:13.670 --> 00:29:16.589
their time can bring that hope and joy to that

601
00:29:16.630 --> 00:29:18.289
person that needs it, that family that needs it, that's

602
00:29:18.309 --> 00:29:21.259
going through a tough time, right? The food's there, the

603
00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:22.960
food's there, the demand is there, and so we just

604
00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:25.579
want to be that connection, right?

605
00:29:25.619 --> 00:29:28.190
And so For us, we get up every day thinking, well,

606
00:29:28.210 --> 00:29:29.430
how are we going to solve this? How can we

607
00:29:29.470 --> 00:29:30.329
solve this? How can we solve this?

608
00:29:30.349 --> 00:29:32.859
How can we make this less friction, right? How can

609
00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:36.700
we make it easier? And so that's fun for us.

610
00:29:36.769 --> 00:29:38.930
I mean, it's work, but it's still.

611
00:29:38.789 --> 00:29:39.930
Fun, right? Yeah.

612
00:29:40.980 --> 00:29:42.720
Well, now I want to connect it really quick to

613
00:29:42.849 --> 00:29:45.410
what our world is. So we are all about, at

614
00:29:45.450 --> 00:29:48.089
Gusto now, all about helping to create workplaces where work

615
00:29:48.109 --> 00:29:51.289
doesn't suck, where people can actually give their best, they

616
00:29:51.309 --> 00:29:53.230
can grow, they can feel like they're part of something

617
00:29:53.250 --> 00:29:56.269
that matters to them, and that they feel dignified in

618
00:29:56.309 --> 00:29:59.000
their process. And when we do that, David, then what

619
00:29:59.039 --> 00:30:03.099
happens is, that individual human then goes home as an inspired,

620
00:30:03.380 --> 00:30:06.430
filled human, and then that changes and lifts the way

621
00:30:06.470 --> 00:30:08.589
that they interact with their loved ones. They have more

622
00:30:08.609 --> 00:30:12.029
capacity and energy to volunteer in their communities, and it

623
00:30:12.109 --> 00:30:16.349
all just ripples out. So what we believe is that

624
00:30:16.390 --> 00:30:18.049
we're not going to get those kind of volunteers if

625
00:30:18.089 --> 00:30:19.859
we don't give them a better experience in their life

626
00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:22.480
and their work. So that's our part of the equation.

627
00:30:23.559 --> 00:30:26.140
You and I met at the Conscious Capitalism.

628
00:30:26.559 --> 00:30:28.039
We did, yep. And.

629
00:30:28.750 --> 00:30:31.859
Um, it's a, you know, it's a business practice. It's

630
00:30:31.880 --> 00:30:34.980
a philosophy, you know, maybe there's, you know, it's tough

631
00:30:35.099 --> 00:30:38.339
to bring the pieces together to say, this is the effort.

632
00:30:38.420 --> 00:30:43.019
This is the impact. It's easy to believe, right? But

633
00:30:43.059 --> 00:30:44.660
some people might want more data.

634
00:30:45.740 --> 00:30:49.009
There's data there, but we do know that our community,

635
00:30:49.549 --> 00:30:53.789
our civilization is built on community, right? And so being

636
00:30:53.829 --> 00:30:56.569
part of a community, it's more difficult today with social media.

637
00:30:56.589 --> 00:30:58.789
It's more difficult on mobile phones. People, you know, people

638
00:30:58.829 --> 00:31:02.539
are interacting less. And so, you know, there's that movie with,

639
00:31:03.339 --> 00:31:04.059
was it WALL-E?

640
00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:04.799
You know, what was that?

641
00:31:04.819 --> 00:31:06.079
Yes, yes, yes, yes, it was.

642
00:31:06.119 --> 00:31:06.640
Yeah, I remember that.

643
00:31:07.200 --> 00:31:07.839
Yeah, yeah.

644
00:31:07.880 --> 00:31:11.779
So we're doing, you know, smartphones, are you know are

645
00:31:12.059 --> 00:31:13.519
not contributing to.

646
00:31:13.400 --> 00:31:15.380
More you know i don't know i don't want to

647
00:31:15.400 --> 00:31:18.480
say it it's uh you know.

648
00:31:20.099 --> 00:31:22.180
You know we're a community if we act like a

649
00:31:22.220 --> 00:31:24.349
community i think everybody's better off right and so conscious

650
00:31:24.369 --> 00:31:28.410
capital is is giving back and getting back right and

651
00:31:28.430 --> 00:31:30.450
getting you know so i think everybody wins again this

652
00:31:30.529 --> 00:31:34.170
is with food waste and food insecurity It's too.

653
00:31:34.069 --> 00:31:35.569
Negative, right? People are losing.

654
00:31:35.589 --> 00:31:39.250
The food is going to the environment. People are still hungry.

655
00:31:39.549 --> 00:31:41.549
So if we bring them together, I think it's a

656
00:31:41.589 --> 00:31:45.430
better community for all of us. And the tax benefits,

657
00:31:45.730 --> 00:31:48.099
the companies are getting the tax benefits. We didn't talk

658
00:31:48.119 --> 00:31:48.390
about this.

659
00:31:48.519 --> 00:31:51.339
I definitely want to talk about it, but let's grab

660
00:31:51.359 --> 00:31:52.779
that after the break because I want to dive into

661
00:31:52.799 --> 00:31:55.509
that a little bit more deeply. I'm your host, Dr.

662
00:31:55.529 --> 00:31:57.690
Elise Cortez. We're on the air with David Stenson, who

663
00:31:57.769 --> 00:32:00.210
is the founder and chief evangelist of Eats Rescue, a

664
00:32:00.230 --> 00:32:05.240
Dallas-based Uber-style on-demand food logistics company focused on redistributing surplus food.

665
00:32:05.819 --> 00:32:07.500
We've been talking a bit about the mechanics of it,

666
00:32:07.539 --> 00:32:09.700
how does it actually work. After the break, we're going

667
00:32:09.720 --> 00:32:11.880
to hit more on that notion of why do businesses

668
00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:13.440
actually donate. We'll be right back.

669
00:32:28.700 --> 00:32:29.000
Dr.

670
00:32:29.059 --> 00:32:32.839
Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose,

671
00:32:33.039 --> 00:32:36.859
an inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies visioneer for

672
00:32:36.900 --> 00:32:41.450
greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose-inspired leadership and meaning-infused

673
00:32:41.509 --> 00:32:45.609
cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce.

674
00:32:46.029 --> 00:32:48.170
To learn more or to invite Elise to speak to

675
00:32:48.210 --> 00:32:52.890
your organization, please visit her at EliseCortez.com. Let's talk about

676
00:32:52.950 --> 00:33:01.210
how to get your employees working on purpose. This is

677
00:33:01.269 --> 00:33:02.849
Working on Purpose with Dr.

678
00:33:02.910 --> 00:33:03.809
Elise Cortez.

679
00:33:04.130 --> 00:33:06.750
To reach our program today or to open a conversation

680
00:33:06.769 --> 00:33:12.690
with Elise, send an email to Elise, A-L-I-S-E, at EliseCortez.com.

681
00:33:13.069 --> 00:33:15.250
Now, back to Working on Purpose.

682
00:33:20.579 --> 00:33:22.319
Thanks for staying with us and welcome back to Working

683
00:33:22.380 --> 00:33:25.309
on Purpose. I'm your host, Dr. Elise Cortez. As you

684
00:33:25.329 --> 00:33:27.390
know by now, this program is dedicated to empowering and

685
00:33:27.430 --> 00:33:29.309
inspiring you along your journey to realize more of your

686
00:33:29.329 --> 00:33:31.859
potential as an individual and a leader in an organization.

687
00:33:32.470 --> 00:33:33.900
So if you'd like to learn more about what we're

688
00:33:33.920 --> 00:33:36.880
doing together, we can check out the Gusto Leadership Spectrum

689
00:33:36.940 --> 00:33:39.240
that we created for you. It's an online free assessment.

690
00:33:39.299 --> 00:33:41.420
You can find it on LinkedIn. So look for me first,

691
00:33:41.799 --> 00:33:45.369
Elise Cortez, and then go to the featured section and

692
00:33:45.410 --> 00:33:47.769
you will find the assessment there. It will help you

693
00:33:47.789 --> 00:33:49.849
better understand just where you are in terms of your

694
00:33:49.869 --> 00:33:51.869
development potential. And then while you're there, be sure and

695
00:33:51.910 --> 00:33:54.529
connect with me if you don't already. If you are

696
00:33:54.569 --> 00:33:56.710
just coming into the program, my guest is David Stenson.

697
00:33:56.839 --> 00:33:59.279
He is the founder and chief evangelist of Eats Rescue,

698
00:33:59.660 --> 00:34:02.000
whose vision is to ensure every pound of food surplus

699
00:34:02.059 --> 00:34:05.779
is fed to people, composted, converted into energy, never wasted.

700
00:34:07.059 --> 00:34:08.889
So I was interested, and you and I, when we

701
00:34:08.909 --> 00:34:12.090
spoke last, I was asking, you know, what helps businesses

702
00:34:12.110 --> 00:34:14.369
to actually donate? Going back to what you said, you know,

703
00:34:14.409 --> 00:34:19.929
with this Boston pub, you know, he stopped when he

704
00:34:19.969 --> 00:34:22.239
realized that he was actually putting money into the containers.

705
00:34:22.869 --> 00:34:25.170
and you told me something interesting that I didn't know about.

706
00:34:25.230 --> 00:34:28.289
And that was this, what is it called? The donation act.

707
00:34:28.309 --> 00:34:29.030
Tell me what that was.

708
00:34:29.050 --> 00:34:31.239
Donation improvement act.

709
00:34:31.440 --> 00:34:34.920
Yeah. So is that part of what is encouraging businesses

710
00:34:34.940 --> 00:34:37.000
to donate or is there, give us the whole story.

711
00:34:37.059 --> 00:34:38.300
Why do businesses donate?

712
00:34:39.119 --> 00:34:42.280
Yeah. You know, uh, businesses make a decision.

713
00:34:42.300 --> 00:34:46.670
Uh, sometimes it's to, you know, reduce their waste financial reasons, right?

714
00:34:46.690 --> 00:34:48.989
It's called zero, zero waste tolerance.

715
00:34:49.889 --> 00:34:53.690
Um, And there was also what they called the Good

716
00:34:54.110 --> 00:34:57.170
Samaritan Law, which basically was a federal law that allowed

717
00:34:57.230 --> 00:34:57.860
you to donate.

718
00:34:58.739 --> 00:35:01.880
Well, they've now upped the game and they've really been

719
00:35:01.900 --> 00:35:02.739
more specific.

720
00:35:02.920 --> 00:35:04.760
So about three years ago, they passed what's called the

721
00:35:04.780 --> 00:35:09.400
Food Donation Improvement Act. And it's very specific. It provides

722
00:35:09.500 --> 00:35:15.449
legal protections and also... gives them the ability to write

723
00:35:15.469 --> 00:35:15.750
it off.

724
00:35:15.809 --> 00:35:16.730
And so it's a much.

725
00:35:16.590 --> 00:35:24.300
More wide covering blanket for donations and organizations that donate

726
00:35:24.760 --> 00:35:28.760
and organizations that are taking the donations and giving it

727
00:35:28.820 --> 00:35:29.300
out to community.

728
00:35:29.599 --> 00:35:33.400
It protects them and provides the legal, the financial incentives.

729
00:35:34.320 --> 00:35:35.320
So there's two things, right?

730
00:35:35.360 --> 00:35:38.150
I mean, you need to have a policy where you're seeing, well, hey,

731
00:35:38.190 --> 00:35:40.690
if I reduce waste, I'm reducing trash, right?

732
00:35:40.730 --> 00:35:45.010
I'm reducing to the environment. My employees like this, right?

733
00:35:45.030 --> 00:35:48.739
They like participating in a program where they're giving back

734
00:35:48.760 --> 00:35:51.880
to the community. But then the company is also getting

735
00:35:52.340 --> 00:35:54.420
a financial benefit for it. They can write off these

736
00:35:54.500 --> 00:35:58.380
tax benefits. I have several organizations that, um, that write

737
00:35:58.400 --> 00:36:01.420
off significant amount of, of food waste.

738
00:36:01.840 --> 00:36:03.519
What was waste is now actually a.

739
00:36:03.500 --> 00:36:06.920
Tax payment to the tune of $ 10, 000 a month for

740
00:36:06.940 --> 00:36:09.449
a restaurant. And so that's half of their rent. I mean,

741
00:36:09.489 --> 00:36:11.690
it's a significant amount of money, right? I mean, half

742
00:36:11.710 --> 00:36:13.369
of the rent is the plan at that point.

743
00:36:13.409 --> 00:36:13.610
Right.

744
00:36:14.489 --> 00:36:14.849
Yeah.

745
00:36:14.969 --> 00:36:15.449
Okay. Okay.

746
00:36:15.849 --> 00:36:17.570
So, okay. A couple of things now I'm getting, I'm

747
00:36:17.590 --> 00:36:19.409
getting even more excited because I can see how this

748
00:36:19.469 --> 00:36:21.610
connects into our world as well. But first I want

749
00:36:21.659 --> 00:36:23.219
to talk about kind of where you are in terms

750
00:36:23.280 --> 00:36:26.440
of the development of your business. You told me that

751
00:36:26.519 --> 00:36:30.039
your next frontier is really heading toward business B2B, business

752
00:36:30.059 --> 00:36:33.130
to business. You have been focused on B2C, business to consumer.

753
00:36:33.769 --> 00:36:37.710
So first let's hit, help us understand just how have

754
00:36:37.730 --> 00:36:41.139
you functioned as a B2C operation? And then where do

755
00:36:41.159 --> 00:36:42.000
you want to go for the B2B?

756
00:36:44.590 --> 00:36:47.469
So during COVID, we were seeing the amount of food

757
00:36:47.489 --> 00:36:50.530
that was available. We were focused on getting that food

758
00:36:50.550 --> 00:36:54.139
to the recipients, the people that are authorized to receive

759
00:36:54.179 --> 00:36:57.800
food from food pantries, making sure they get higher quality,

760
00:36:57.900 --> 00:36:58.659
fresh foods.

761
00:36:59.280 --> 00:37:00.980
And we're working with a lot of food pantries. So

762
00:37:01.019 --> 00:37:03.130
we started to build the app for that. So the

763
00:37:03.210 --> 00:37:03.929
app allows.

764
00:37:04.449 --> 00:37:08.570
these food pantries and these nonprofits to distribute the food quickly.

765
00:37:08.610 --> 00:37:12.909
So they post it, it comes available. People have the app.

766
00:37:13.130 --> 00:37:16.510
We were kind of doing this mostly manual, the way

767
00:37:16.530 --> 00:37:18.380
a lot of the organizations did it until we started

768
00:37:18.420 --> 00:37:19.179
to build the systems.

769
00:37:19.519 --> 00:37:21.679
But we used the original app, my daughter's app, as

770
00:37:21.699 --> 00:37:22.380
the base for that.

771
00:37:22.960 --> 00:37:26.000
So now that works really well. That's where we have

772
00:37:26.019 --> 00:37:28.699
the majority of our users. It works very quickly. They

773
00:37:28.719 --> 00:37:31.380
get notifications. People have the notifications on in the app.

774
00:37:31.699 --> 00:37:33.159
And then they get notified. They see where it is.

775
00:37:33.179 --> 00:37:35.349
They go pick it up. No more standing in line,

776
00:37:35.389 --> 00:37:36.969
no more people showing up.

777
00:37:36.969 --> 00:37:39.599
For food that's not available or, you know, it's not

778
00:37:39.639 --> 00:37:42.320
a mismatch between how much food is available and what's

779
00:37:42.360 --> 00:37:47.019
coming to get it. The B2B piece is originating more food, right?

780
00:37:47.199 --> 00:37:49.539
We know that, you know, if you look at the farm,

781
00:37:49.699 --> 00:37:55.449
the transportation, manufacturing, catering, grocery, restaurants, they all have some surplus.

782
00:37:55.550 --> 00:37:57.429
And a lot of times it's during different times of

783
00:37:57.449 --> 00:37:59.739
the day. It's not only at a certain time. And

784
00:37:59.760 --> 00:38:03.170
so our system is now focused on getting more of

785
00:38:03.190 --> 00:38:05.429
that food to make a bigger impact to the people

786
00:38:05.469 --> 00:38:07.050
that need it and growing beyond.

787
00:38:06.750 --> 00:38:07.429
The Dallas area.

788
00:38:08.909 --> 00:38:13.369
Okay. So before you said that, my mind went when

789
00:38:13.389 --> 00:38:16.170
it came to the B2B stuff. And our world is

790
00:38:16.210 --> 00:38:18.699
very much about helping to make sure that the organizations

791
00:38:18.719 --> 00:38:21.219
that we serve, what happens is that we help them

792
00:38:21.300 --> 00:38:24.280
strengthen their relationships to all of their stakeholders. And that

793
00:38:24.320 --> 00:38:27.099
definitely is a page from conscious capitalism. One of the

794
00:38:27.139 --> 00:38:31.349
tenets is stakeholder capitalism orientation. So where my mind went, David,

795
00:38:31.369 --> 00:38:34.130
just let me sketch this for you really quick. Where

796
00:38:34.150 --> 00:38:36.110
I think it gets really beautiful and where I get

797
00:38:36.150 --> 00:38:38.789
really excited, it's seeing that business really can be a

798
00:38:38.829 --> 00:38:43.389
force for good. And it very often is. Like, for example,

799
00:38:43.670 --> 00:38:46.429
one of our members of Conscious Capitalism had an IP

800
00:38:46.449 --> 00:38:52.110
law firm. And their whole mission was to be able

801
00:38:52.130 --> 00:38:54.829
to help lift their communities and such. And so one

802
00:38:54.909 --> 00:38:57.170
of the things they would do, for example, is they

803
00:38:57.210 --> 00:39:01.679
would support... nonprofits in their communities. Like, for example, one

804
00:39:01.699 --> 00:39:05.420
of them was a children's shelter or something like that.

805
00:39:06.019 --> 00:39:07.980
And this shelter was putting on some kind of like

806
00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:11.219
a Christmas sort of an event for the children. So

807
00:39:11.260 --> 00:39:15.440
this organization goes to their, now they go to their

808
00:39:15.539 --> 00:39:18.889
clients and their vendors and they ask, hey, we want

809
00:39:18.929 --> 00:39:20.030
to be part of this. This is part of how

810
00:39:20.030 --> 00:39:23.039
we're living our values. So they had a teddy bear

811
00:39:23.039 --> 00:39:26.539
manufacturer who was a client and they said, hey, would

812
00:39:26.539 --> 00:39:29.719
you help support this? And they said, you know, yeah,

813
00:39:29.719 --> 00:39:33.420
we actually have a whole truckload of teddy bears that

814
00:39:33.539 --> 00:39:35.760
are not well, they're not perfectly designed. We were going

815
00:39:35.780 --> 00:39:38.420
to send them to the landfill. And so they said, hey,

816
00:39:38.780 --> 00:39:41.219
forget the landfill. Let's have you, and don't just dump

817
00:39:41.260 --> 00:39:43.159
it off over here at the Children's Center. We would

818
00:39:43.199 --> 00:39:46.090
like you to have your employees come and hand these

819
00:39:46.119 --> 00:39:49.469
teddy bears to the children. So now what they're doing,

820
00:39:49.489 --> 00:39:51.550
there's like a virtuous sort of a cycle here. And

821
00:39:51.570 --> 00:39:53.820
so now what they're doing is they're expressing their values

822
00:39:53.860 --> 00:39:57.219
and their purpose into the community and embracing all of

823
00:39:57.260 --> 00:39:59.420
their stakeholders in the process. I didn't count all of

824
00:39:59.460 --> 00:40:01.619
them that were part of that. But to me, I

825
00:40:01.960 --> 00:40:04.380
see what you're doing as a way to be able

826
00:40:04.440 --> 00:40:08.719
to help organizations to situate and express more of what

827
00:40:08.780 --> 00:40:12.780
matters to them, their values, their purpose, and enroll various

828
00:40:12.860 --> 00:40:15.179
aspects of the community at the same time to strengthen

829
00:40:15.199 --> 00:40:18.369
their position in the marketplace. and endear them to people

830
00:40:18.429 --> 00:40:19.289
in their communities.

831
00:40:20.050 --> 00:40:20.289
Thoughts?

832
00:40:22.349 --> 00:40:26.969
Yeah, so I go back to when I was younger

833
00:40:26.989 --> 00:40:28.130
and playing baseball, right?

834
00:40:28.150 --> 00:40:32.639
There was a pizza place that always made us feel welcome.

835
00:40:32.659 --> 00:40:36.000
I think they probably donated a few pizzas. But people

836
00:40:36.099 --> 00:40:38.940
went to that restaurant because it was aligned to their,

837
00:40:40.280 --> 00:40:41.300
it was in the community, right?

838
00:40:41.340 --> 00:40:42.019
It was close by.

839
00:40:42.039 --> 00:40:44.940
Most I think it's 80% of all business for most

840
00:40:45.019 --> 00:40:47.739
restaurants is within a mile and a half of that restaurant.

841
00:40:47.820 --> 00:40:51.239
Right. Unless you're in a tourist area, but, um, so

842
00:40:51.280 --> 00:40:52.239
your customers are local.

843
00:40:52.579 --> 00:40:54.920
So if you're giving back to local businesses, you really

844
00:40:54.940 --> 00:40:57.840
do get recognized. And we know that people spend their

845
00:40:57.880 --> 00:41:01.889
disposable income on, you know, with businesses that align to

846
00:41:01.929 --> 00:41:02.510
their values.

847
00:41:02.610 --> 00:41:05.190
Right. And so when I was playing baseball, we used

848
00:41:05.210 --> 00:41:06.050
to go to this pizza place.

849
00:41:06.070 --> 00:41:08.570
Well, when they weren't giving away pizza, we also went there,

850
00:41:08.590 --> 00:41:10.349
you know, it was became the local shop.

851
00:41:10.429 --> 00:41:14.929
And so, um, You know, I think it's good business

852
00:41:14.989 --> 00:41:15.929
sense to give back.

853
00:41:16.510 --> 00:41:19.469
It's good business sense to get recognized for your.

854
00:41:19.409 --> 00:41:21.389
Effort, right, to, you know, giving back.

855
00:41:21.889 --> 00:41:25.639
And so we're all about accelerating that so that the

856
00:41:25.659 --> 00:41:30.860
businesses have surplus, give back, get the recognition for it, right?

857
00:41:30.980 --> 00:41:34.239
They're helping reduce their waste, giving.

858
00:41:34.039 --> 00:41:36.199
Back to the community, helping people in the community, and

859
00:41:36.219 --> 00:41:38.500
they get recognized for it, and they get a tax deduction.

860
00:41:38.559 --> 00:41:42.179
And it's a win, win, win, go win all day, right?

861
00:41:42.239 --> 00:41:42.440
I mean.

862
00:41:44.340 --> 00:41:47.250
This is the goat.

863
00:41:46.190 --> 00:41:50.849
Of all business and social activities if you can do this, right?

864
00:41:51.130 --> 00:41:53.309
And I think restaurants get that. They really know their restaurants,

865
00:41:53.630 --> 00:41:57.659
their consumers are local. And so if they're closer to them,

866
00:41:58.239 --> 00:41:58.780
it's to their benefit.

867
00:41:58.840 --> 00:42:00.719
All right.

868
00:42:00.800 --> 00:42:03.360
So paint the picture for us, David. When you talk

869
00:42:03.400 --> 00:42:06.360
about really taking this to the next level and really

870
00:42:06.880 --> 00:42:10.010
enlarging it through the B2B focus, paint that for us.

871
00:42:10.050 --> 00:42:13.010
What does that really look like? Paint the ecosystem in

872
00:42:13.050 --> 00:42:14.369
the community that's involved.

873
00:42:15.170 --> 00:42:18.050
Yeah. So think of all the restaurants that have line

874
00:42:18.110 --> 00:42:21.199
changes and throw that food out.

875
00:42:21.239 --> 00:42:25.099
Now, it's perfectly edible food before they throw it out, right?

876
00:42:25.639 --> 00:42:29.480
Think of all the grocery stores that have banged up tomatoes.

877
00:42:29.719 --> 00:42:32.610
Think of all the Best Buy dates and sell-by dates.

878
00:42:33.250 --> 00:42:36.309
And it's accumulated during the day, right? A lot of

879
00:42:36.329 --> 00:42:40.059
this food actually gets processed. thrown out or it gets

880
00:42:40.179 --> 00:42:42.019
put aside.

881
00:42:42.059 --> 00:42:43.500
It has to be scanned out of inventory.

882
00:42:44.019 --> 00:42:46.380
In the case of grocery stores, they have to scan

883
00:42:46.400 --> 00:42:47.920
it out of inventory so they have just the right

884
00:42:47.940 --> 00:42:49.500
amount of inventory so they know what they're buying.

885
00:42:50.460 --> 00:42:51.559
But then it has to get moved around.

886
00:42:52.800 --> 00:42:55.820
And in both cases, food is going to waste and

887
00:42:55.860 --> 00:43:02.889
it's costing the business money. So at scale, large organizations

888
00:43:02.969 --> 00:43:07.900
can get a bigger financial impact if they schedule and

889
00:43:07.940 --> 00:43:10.219
have unscheduled pickups also because.

890
00:43:10.039 --> 00:43:11.679
This food is coming available during the day.

891
00:43:12.039 --> 00:43:15.000
So our focus is on the B2B side is getting

892
00:43:15.059 --> 00:43:19.679
large institutions and large chains that have surplus that realize

893
00:43:19.719 --> 00:43:22.719
that this is a cost and take that cost waste

894
00:43:23.179 --> 00:43:24.559
and turn it into a benefit, right?

895
00:43:24.579 --> 00:43:26.599
Turn it into a tax benefit, turn it into a

896
00:43:26.679 --> 00:43:27.360
social benefit.

897
00:43:28.099 --> 00:43:30.400
So again, you know, taking something that would go into

898
00:43:30.420 --> 00:43:33.420
the landfill and turning it into the positives that would

899
00:43:33.440 --> 00:43:37.260
come out of it. That's really what we're focused on recently.

900
00:43:37.659 --> 00:43:42.519
I actually was invited into the United Way Social Innovation.

901
00:43:42.210 --> 00:43:44.469
Accelerator Program, which is what I'm in right now. I

902
00:43:44.489 --> 00:43:45.349
go there later on today.

903
00:43:46.309 --> 00:43:50.110
United Way has done great work in the community to

904
00:43:50.650 --> 00:43:51.309
give back.

905
00:43:51.949 --> 00:43:56.780
Focused on education, focused on jobs, focused on health initiatives.

906
00:43:58.599 --> 00:44:01.559
they see what we're doing as a great way to

907
00:44:01.579 --> 00:44:02.239
solve it at scale.

908
00:44:02.280 --> 00:44:05.889
So doing this nationally, right, getting all the institute, you know,

909
00:44:05.909 --> 00:44:09.230
getting the right organizations involved and at a business for

910
00:44:09.289 --> 00:44:12.809
profit scale, you know, making this the myth, the most profit,

911
00:44:12.949 --> 00:44:17.630
the most impact possible To organizations, we have organizations today

912
00:44:17.670 --> 00:44:19.809
that are just throwing out food, right? That waste is

913
00:44:19.829 --> 00:44:21.920
worth something, right? And driving that home and getting them

914
00:44:21.940 --> 00:44:25.019
to realize that and realizing they can't be sued or

915
00:44:25.059 --> 00:44:27.300
they can be sued, but it's a limited liability. There's

916
00:44:27.320 --> 00:44:30.690
really no incentives there anymore. This law is, you know,

917
00:44:30.699 --> 00:44:32.610
the law is, the federal law, the food donation group

918
00:44:36.239 --> 00:44:38.159
I think that becomes a wave and it changes the

919
00:44:38.179 --> 00:44:43.289
way that we actually manage food waste and compostable and

920
00:44:43.530 --> 00:44:48.969
fuel-able foods instead of just throwing them out going forward

921
00:44:49.110 --> 00:44:49.969
in the next five years.

922
00:44:51.489 --> 00:44:54.889
Okay. So this program is listened to by people around

923
00:44:54.929 --> 00:44:58.250
the world, David. So how can we help? What are

924
00:44:58.590 --> 00:45:01.289
you looking for? How can listeners and viewers, if they

925
00:45:01.309 --> 00:45:03.889
wanted to support you, had an idea, what do you need?

926
00:45:03.969 --> 00:45:04.409
How can we help?

927
00:45:05.980 --> 00:45:12.050
Well, every pound of food can bring joy and hope, right?

928
00:45:12.110 --> 00:45:14.630
Sandwiches, caving box, bulk foods.

929
00:45:15.429 --> 00:45:17.670
The food is there to feed millions of people and

930
00:45:17.730 --> 00:45:19.989
it's getting thrown out, you know, every day.

931
00:45:20.679 --> 00:45:23.960
So help us identify it, right? Send us, you know,

932
00:45:24.199 --> 00:45:25.639
if you're interested in getting the program.

933
00:45:26.349 --> 00:45:29.369
Help us get that to the organizations that are, you know,

934
00:45:29.809 --> 00:45:33.050
to the organizations that are along your values, right? That

935
00:45:33.090 --> 00:45:35.780
are aligned to your values as a business, as a restaurant,

936
00:45:35.820 --> 00:45:40.019
as a grocery store. And even into, you know, even

937
00:45:40.079 --> 00:45:43.500
to these large, what do you call it? The homeless,

938
00:45:43.519 --> 00:45:45.380
you know, the homeless and day shelters and things like that.

939
00:45:46.400 --> 00:45:48.929
If they don't have to spend it buying food for people,

940
00:45:49.300 --> 00:45:49.849
they can put.

941
00:45:49.750 --> 00:45:51.750
It into other issues. They can put it into mental.

942
00:45:51.530 --> 00:45:54.769
Health and housing, right? There's a lot of problems that

943
00:45:54.789 --> 00:45:57.409
can be solved by just putting an attention to it.

944
00:45:57.449 --> 00:45:59.610
And one is a basic right. I mean, I think

945
00:45:59.809 --> 00:46:02.369
if we have food and it's available and instead of

946
00:46:02.409 --> 00:46:04.280
throwing it out, we can get it to people. But

947
00:46:04.320 --> 00:46:06.699
that money that's going in to buy food today to

948
00:46:06.820 --> 00:46:10.300
feed people can actually do other things like the housing

949
00:46:10.340 --> 00:46:11.920
and mental illness and health.

950
00:46:12.039 --> 00:46:15.199
So get involved, you know, let us know how we

951
00:46:15.219 --> 00:46:15.500
can help.

952
00:46:15.519 --> 00:46:21.219
You can email me at david at eatsrescue.com, E-E-T-Z rescue.com.

953
00:46:21.380 --> 00:46:23.070
My number is also in the mobile app. You know,

954
00:46:23.429 --> 00:46:25.550
I do this If I can, 24 hours a day.

955
00:46:25.570 --> 00:46:27.969
I don't know if there's as much time as I

956
00:46:28.010 --> 00:46:29.860
can do it. We have fun with it.

957
00:46:30.429 --> 00:46:31.010
And there's lots of.

958
00:46:30.969 --> 00:46:33.230
People that are, you know, that work with me and

959
00:46:33.269 --> 00:46:36.610
volunteer that are also very interested in, you know, in

960
00:46:36.659 --> 00:46:39.219
getting involved and doing more and, you know, in making

961
00:46:39.239 --> 00:46:41.119
this part of their mission, their life mission, really.

962
00:46:42.969 --> 00:46:45.320
And so can they get the app just through the

963
00:46:45.360 --> 00:46:46.820
App Store or where do they get the app?

964
00:46:47.179 --> 00:46:49.440
Yeah, App Store and Google Play.

965
00:46:49.780 --> 00:46:51.460
Both of them, you can just download the app. It

966
00:46:51.719 --> 00:46:55.179
works as is. You can take a picture of food

967
00:46:55.980 --> 00:46:59.369
that's going to waste and post it. If there's nobody nearby,

968
00:46:59.429 --> 00:47:02.949
we try to connect that to people. You know, if

969
00:47:02.969 --> 00:47:05.690
you think about it, right, there's big feeding celebrations. There's,

970
00:47:05.710 --> 00:47:09.210
you know, Thanksgiving and Christmas and Passover and Purim and,

971
00:47:09.230 --> 00:47:13.909
you know, Ramadan and at Al-Fitr, you know, Those are

972
00:47:13.949 --> 00:47:17.300
kind of eventual. There's always people out helping people and,

973
00:47:17.409 --> 00:47:21.059
you know, and kind of feeding communities. But there's food

974
00:47:21.139 --> 00:47:23.280
every day. If we can help, if you can help

975
00:47:23.559 --> 00:47:26.179
us identify more of that food coming from restaurants and

976
00:47:26.199 --> 00:47:29.619
grocery stores and along the food chain and get it

977
00:47:29.639 --> 00:47:31.480
to people, you know, we feel fulfilled.

978
00:47:31.960 --> 00:47:33.260
The app functions as is.

979
00:47:33.429 --> 00:47:36.130
And we build a very strong community of people that

980
00:47:36.150 --> 00:47:40.769
are working towards the same, right? Solve this one problem

981
00:47:41.190 --> 00:47:44.210
with another problem. or vice versa, whatever way you want

982
00:47:44.230 --> 00:47:47.690
to look at it, right? Both of these things can

983
00:47:47.710 --> 00:47:50.949
be solved together. So at scale, just get involved. Let

984
00:47:51.010 --> 00:47:51.849
us know how we can help.

985
00:47:51.989 --> 00:47:52.610
Use the app.

986
00:47:53.269 --> 00:47:57.519
We're happy that it's built exactly to do what we're

987
00:47:57.539 --> 00:47:57.960
talking about.

988
00:47:59.719 --> 00:48:01.760
David, I am a huge fan of what you're doing.

989
00:48:01.800 --> 00:48:03.340
I knew it from the start when I first met you,

990
00:48:03.360 --> 00:48:05.460
and now I'm even more convinced that what you're doing

991
00:48:05.519 --> 00:48:08.320
is really, really important, and I'm certainly happy to help

992
00:48:08.340 --> 00:48:09.960
share this with our listeners and viewers and see if

993
00:48:09.980 --> 00:48:12.440
we can't get a few more kindred spirits to come

994
00:48:12.500 --> 00:48:15.460
along for the ride. Thank you for doing what you're doing.

995
00:48:15.480 --> 00:48:17.110
Thank you for coming on the show to talk about it.

996
00:48:17.110 --> 00:48:18.849
I appreciate you coming on, working on purpose.

997
00:48:19.809 --> 00:48:22.789
Thank you very much, Elise. I very much enjoyed it.

998
00:48:23.389 --> 00:48:25.889
Likewise. Listeners and viewers, you are going to want to

999
00:48:25.909 --> 00:48:27.670
learn more about David Stinson and the work he and

1000
00:48:27.710 --> 00:48:29.889
his team are doing at Eats Rescue. So a couple

1001
00:48:29.909 --> 00:48:32.309
of places you can go. He mentioned the app. You

1002
00:48:32.349 --> 00:48:34.159
can find that on the App Store or Google Apps.

1003
00:48:34.260 --> 00:48:37.420
You can go to their website. It's eatsrescue.com. Let me

1004
00:48:37.460 --> 00:48:44.239
spell that again for you. It's E-E-T-Z rescue.com. Last week,

1005
00:48:44.280 --> 00:48:45.900
if you missed the live show, you can always catch

1006
00:48:45.940 --> 00:48:48.440
it via recorded podcast or wherever you find them. We

1007
00:48:48.460 --> 00:48:50.920
were on air with Brad Johnson and David Smith talking

1008
00:48:50.960 --> 00:48:53.659
about their book, Fair Share, how men and women can

1009
00:48:53.719 --> 00:48:57.539
create a more equitable workplace together. They shared that 73%

1010
00:48:57.539 --> 00:49:00.880
of the workforce are caregivers in some way, whether for children,

1011
00:49:01.099 --> 00:49:03.960
aging parents, loved ones who need more physical or mental care.

1012
00:49:04.539 --> 00:49:06.980
So consider how few organizations are operating in a way

1013
00:49:07.019 --> 00:49:11.030
that accommodates those needs outside the workplace. We also talked

1014
00:49:11.070 --> 00:49:14.570
about how more men are wanting to assume greater caregiving

1015
00:49:14.610 --> 00:49:17.309
roles and have supportive partnerships at home and how much

1016
00:49:17.349 --> 00:49:20.619
the workplace culture can evolve to meet those demands and

1017
00:49:20.659 --> 00:49:24.030
those interests. We'll see you next week for another nourishing,

1018
00:49:24.050 --> 00:49:27.469
inspiring conversation. Let's continue learning how to help more people flourish,

1019
00:49:27.869 --> 00:49:30.789
elevate your operating system as a leader, and create destination

1020
00:49:30.809 --> 00:49:34.190
workplaces where legendary business takes place. Let's work on purpose.

1021
00:49:37.429 --> 00:49:40.050
We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to

1022
00:49:40.090 --> 00:49:42.809
tune in to Working on Purpose, featuring your host, Dr.

1023
00:49:42.869 --> 00:49:47.170
Elise Cortez, each week on W4CY. Together we'll create a

1024
00:49:47.210 --> 00:49:51.820
world where business operates conscientiously, leadership inspires in passion performance,

1025
00:49:51.989 --> 00:49:54.679
and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning

1026
00:49:54.719 --> 00:49:55.800
and purpose they crave.

1027
00:49:56.280 --> 00:49:58.500
See you there. Let's work on purpose.