Photo Courtesy of Imperfect Produce
Lumpy strawberries, boomerang-shaped cucumbers, potatoes sprouting warts and other unsightly produce deemed unsellable by supermarkets typically gets wasted, even though such products are still flavorful and safe to eat. The folks behind San Francisco-based Imperfect Produce thought this was wrong and decided to do something about it. Now, with a presence in Milwaukee, Imperfect Produce partners with farmers, taking their weird-yet-edible outcasts and offering them to the public through discounted subscription boxes.
Imperfect Produce co-founder Ben Simon, while studying as an undergrad at the University of Maryland, noticed how the cafeteria wasted a lot of food, particularly produce. He started a nonprofit at the college to reduce waste. “As he unraveled the sweater and asked more questions, he saw there was a lot of stuff that never made it to the cafeteria, restaurants or stores simply because of how it looked. He helped recover that produce and find homes to feed people,” said Reilly Brock, content manager at Imperfect Produce.
Produce waste can vary depending on the season or the crop. Malformed carrots can still be processed into juice or puree, but items like eggplant deemed too weird often gets left in the field, even though it’s edible. While home gardeners might be intuitive to all produce harvested—ugly or not—Brock noted that our supermarket system has made people think that everything should be uniform. “But the reality is that Nature produces a lot of shapes and sizes and that’s beautiful in its own way. We’re all about changing the conversation and educating folks,” she said.
Since forming Imperfect Produce in August 2015, Simon, along with co-founder Ben Chesler and chief marketing officer Aleks Strub, have diverted 25 million pounds of produce from being wasted. They’ve grown Imperfect Produce to have a presence in the San Francisco Bay area, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Chicago, Indianapolis and, now, in Milwaukee.
Brock said their Chicago launch last winter showed that eating healthier and reducing food waste wasn’t just a West Coast phenomenon. “We very quickly identified Milwaukee as a good fit,” she said. “There’s a vibrant food scene there and a healthy food culture and lot of farms. Wisconsin is a huge agricultural area, and this was a good chance for us to close the gap between folks growing produce in Wisconsin and folks looking to cook healthier.”
Customers can sign up online for a subscription box delivery service and log into their accounts to see what’s coming or what’s in season, and they can customize boxes to fit their needs. The model is similar to community-supported agriculture (CSA), but unlike a CSA that focuses on just one farmer or region, Imperfect Produce’s main focus is on reducing waste. They have partnered with the Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative and dozens of farmers in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois.
Imperfect Produce’s main Midwest warehouse is in Chicago. They have a facility in Milwaukee where the boxes are packed and shipped. They employ drivers here to deliver the boxes. So far, the company is focused on a pilot area Downtown, and they’re looking to expand to more zip codes and neighborhoods.
“If you sign up, and we’re not in your area yet, stay tuned—we’ll try to get there soon,” Brock said. Although it’s only been a short time, Brock said they’ve been well received in Wisconsin, and people report eating better and feeling empowered to fight food waste.
For more information, visit imperfectproduce.com.
