Let the trashcans go hungry! Spoiler Alert connects restaurants and grocers who have surplus food with non-profits that can use it. If the extra food is still edible, it goes to soup kitchens, pantries, and the like; if it has gone bad, it goes to compost makers or gets turned into animal feed. Either way, the cost to haul it away is reduced, landfills are landemptied, and people in need get access to low-cost or free healthy food. In a country where over a third of all food gets wasted while millions of people are food-insecure, this app is actually making the world a better place.
I did a LLOL (literal laugh out loud) when I heard the name Spoiler Alert. In this world where there are a zillion causes and getting people to make an extra effort to help others is very competitive, the lighthearted name sets them apart. Of course, not just any cause could adopt a humorous name—in fact, it would be awful if many of them did—but since Spoiler Alert is B2B, it works. And like the ice-bucket challenge, a well-placed touch of humor makes it easier, sometimes, to encourage new demographics to confront important issues and participate in the solution.
Most brilliantly, the name also implies through its humor that Spoiler Alert is extremely attentive to the user experience. And that is especially important for this cause. The barrier to curtailing food waste isn’t a lack of supply OR demand, it is that forking it over is really forking difficult. Facilitating partnerships, arranging transportation and delivery, and navigating the rules and liabilities of donating food are daunting tasks for companies with too much on their plates to begin with. But the humor of it says just the opposite–that Spoiler Alert strives to make the process as enjoyable and easy as possible.
Grade: A+ (Surprise!)
