Imperfect Produce Launches Home Delivery In Milwaukee In Late June
“Ugly” produce delivery service comes to Milwaukee to fight food waste, support farmers and improve access to healthy and affordable fruits and vegetables
Imperfect Produce
(CHICAGO; June 15, 2018)—Innovative food company, Imperfect is bringing misshapen, but perfectly edible produce to Milwaukee tables as they expand their delivery service throughout the Midwest the last week of June. Imperfect will be expanding its partnerships to buy locally from Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative, a collection of over 45 organic and conventional growers.
“We’re always looking for ways to make a bigger impact on food waste and make food accessible for more people. After our successful launch in Chicago last winter and in Indianapolis this spring, we learned that the Midwest is just as hungry for this type of positive change in our food system as the West coast is,” says CMO Aleks Strub. “The state of Wisconsin has been a proud proponent of organic and local agriculture for a long time and Milwaukee in particular is a hub of excitement around cooking and sustainability. We’re excited to get to know Wisconsin better and be a part of Milwaukee’s exciting food renaissance.”
Imperfect will initially launch around downtown and roll out to new neighborhoods in the months after launch. Milwaukee residents are welcome to check if Imperfect delivers to their exact area by heading to the website and entering their zip code.
Imperfect is on a social mission to eliminate food waste, help farmers benefit from a full harvest and make healthy fruits and vegetables more accessible and affordable. Each customized box is filled with a variety of organic or conventional ugly fruits and vegetables priced at 30 to 50 percent below grocery rates.
“Wasting less food is about eating better and supporting farmers,” says Founder Ben Simon. “By eating Imperfect fruits and veggies, you’re helping to change the food system, improve access to healthy food and protect the environment from the greenhouse gasses emitted by uneaten, decomposing food in landfills. Our company has kept over 21 million pounds of produce from going to waste at a time when one in eight families are struggling to put food on the table. We want to help end food desserts by making produce more accessible and affordable for families looking for healthy options.”
Imperfect is proud to help increase food security in Milwaukee by making fresh produce more convenient in the form of home delivery, keeping it affordable through the company’s cost savings and the company’s weekly donations to local food banks. Additionally, Imperfect offers a low-cost box option for those who qualify for SNAP benefits, filling a void because online groceries do not accept SNAP.
From Farm to Doorstep
Imperfect is proud to announce its partnership with the Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative, who will be helping connect local farmers with “ugly” produce to hungry Imperfect customers. In colder months, produce will come from outside the Great Lakes—with the exception of some root crops and apples—as is the norm in the produce industry, including retail.
“While we have an enthusiastic group of Midwestern and Wisconsin growers, our produce sourcing varies by the day and the week depending on the weather and the seasons,” says Tony Masco, VP of Midwest Operations. “Ultimately, our philosophy as a company is ‘follow the waste.’ To offer our customers variety while also fighting waste in the biggest way that we can, this involves sourcing from outside of the Midwest. We source a good amount of produce from the West coast as so much of our country’s produce is grown there, especially in the colder months.”Imperfect offers a variety of boxes for singles and families, and each box can be customized with just the right mix of fruits and veggies. Customers choose each item that arrives in their box each week. Milwaukee residents can sign up for the new delivery service, set to launch in late June.
About Imperfect
As a college student at the University of Maryland, Imperfect CEO Ben Simon noticed a lot of food in the cafeteria going to waste. To solve this problem, he founded the Food Recovery Network (FRN), a non-profit dedicated to preventing waste on college campuses. Through his work with the FRN, Ben Simon met Imperfect co-founder Ben Chesler. As they learned more about food waste in America, Ben and Ben realized that there was an even bigger opportunity to make an impact on food waste by addressing the billions of pounds of “ugly” and surplus produce that never even made it off of farms every year. They founded Imperfect in August 2015 with the mission of finding a home for the 1 in 5 fruits and vegetables that grocery stores wouldn’t buy because of how they looked. Imperfect sources this produce directly from the farms and delivers it at a discount to customers’ homes. Since its start in the East Bay of San Francisco in 2015, Imperfect has expanded delivery to the entire Bay Area, Los Angeles, Portland, OR, Seattle, WA, Chicago, IL, and Indianapolis, IN. Milwaukee will be the company’s latest city launch in the Midwest. For more information, please visit www.imperfectproduce.com and follow the company on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.
