Autonomous driving venture Cruise is partnering with Replate, a meal-finding nonprofit, to “rescue” extra food from local businesses and restaurants and deliver them to local organizations in need.
The companies are starting the project in San Francisco, with plans to scale operations to multiple other cities by the end of the year. Currently, Cruise’s autonomous, all-electric vehicles are picking up items from Blue Bottle and delivering to a nonprofit called HealthRIGHT 360.
Every year, about 119 billion pounds of food is wasted in the U.S., which equates to more than $408 billion, according to Feeding America. That food waste also generates significant greenhouse gas emissions. A 2021 EPA report estimated that U.S. food waste leads to 170 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent GHG emissions—the emissions equivalent of 42 coal-fired power plants.
“The whole goal is to create even more impact with a smaller footprint,” says Amanda Lenaghan, Cruise’s director of social impact. “And I think that’s really important because the communities that are being served are also those who are often most impacted by climate change as well.”
The pair had been working together on a small pilot program for the past few months, after Replate’s team approached Cruise. The two companies’ engineering and operating teams then worked together to build out what Lenaghan says is a seamless experience. A Cruise will be dispatched to the restaurant or shop with the surplus of food. That place’s workers will then put the food in the car before it drives itself over to a nonprofit who will then grab the items.
“This is a partnership that’s national in scope and can get us into multiple cities together and allowed us to bring in food rescue and additional ways to have a positive impact not only on communities, but also on the environment,” Lenaghan says.
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