Copia CEO Komal Ahmad: Waste less, feed more

Summary

Komal Amith, CEO of Copia, addresses the issue of excess food waste at events and its potential to feed the hungry. She shares her journey from a Berkeley student to founding Copia, a platform that connects businesses with excess food to nonprofits in need. Copia's technology efficiently matches donors with recipients, leveraging partnerships with DoorDash and Postmates to reduce logistics costs. The service not only combats hunger but also provides tax benefits for businesses, promoting a sustainable solution to food waste.

Takeaways

• 🍽️ Komal Amith, the founder and CEO of Copia, is addressing the issue of excess food waste at events and its potential to feed those in need.
• 👏 The JW Marriott culinary staff and the Green Best team are praised for providing over a thousand meals through their partnership with Copia.
• 🌱 Komal's inspiration to tackle food waste came from a personal encounter with a hungry veteran while food was being wasted nearby.
• 📊 In America, over 365 million pounds of edible food is wasted daily, which has significant economic and environmental impacts.
• 🇺🇸 The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act of 1996 protects donors from liability, encouraging food donations but misinformation persists.
• 🚚 Copia operates a virtual marketplace that matches businesses with excess food to nonprofits that need it, streamlining the donation process.
• 📱 Nonprofits create profiles on Copia's platform, specifying their food needs and logistics capabilities.
• 📈 Copia uses an algorithm to match donors' excess food with nearby nonprofits, dispatching drivers to pick up and deliver the food.
• 💼 Businesses benefit from Copia's service by reducing waste, saving on disposal costs, and gaining tax deductions for their donations.
• 🌐 Copia has partnered with DoorDash and Postmates, giving it access to 500,000 drivers across 4,000 cities for efficient food delivery.
• 📊 Copia provides businesses with real-time analytics on their donations' impact, including the number of people fed and environmental savings.

Q & A

What is the name of the company founded by Komal Amith?

Komal Amith is the founder and CEO of Copia.

What is the main issue that Copia aims to address?

Copia aims to address the issue of food waste by reducing it and solving hunger through an effective distribution system.

How does Copia reduce food waste at events like conferences and weddings?

Copia reduces food waste by partnering with event organizers and donating excess food to those in need.

What is the significance of the Emerson Good Samaritan Act mentioned in the script?

The Emerson Good Samaritan Act protects donors from liability when they donate food, which encourages food donation and reduces waste.

What was the initial challenge Komal faced when she started donating food from her college's dining hall?

The initial challenge was the dining hall managers' concern about liability, which was later addressed by the Emerson Good Samaritan Act.

How does Copia's platform match donors with nonprofits?

Copia's platform uses an algorithm to match the type and amount of excess food from donors to the nearest nonprofit that can use it at the required time.

What are some of the types of nonprofits that Copia works with?

Copia works with a variety of nonprofits including after-school programs, domestic abuse shelters, senior citizen homes, and veterans agencies.

How does Copia ensure that the food donations are received quickly?

Copia has partnered with food logistics companies like DoorDash and Postmates to ensure that food is picked up and delivered quickly, averaging less than 26 minutes.

What are the benefits for businesses that use Copia's service?

Businesses benefit from Copia's service by receiving tax savings, reduced disposal costs, and the ability to track their impact on reducing hunger and food waste.

How does Copia use machine learning to help businesses reduce food waste?

Copia uses machine learning to develop predictive analytics that help businesses understand why waste is happening and provide actionable insights to reduce over-purchasing and over-production.

What is one of the key goals Copia has set for itself?

One of Copia's key goals is to feed four million people this year with food that would have otherwise been wasted.

Outlines

00:00

🌱 Introduction to Copia and Food Waste

Komal Amith, the founder and CEO of Copia, introduces herself and the company's mission to reduce food waste. She highlights the irony of excess food at events like conferences and weddings ending up in the trash while people go hungry. Komal shares her personal journey, starting with her encounter with a homeless veteran named John who had served in Iraq and was facing hunger due to delayed military benefits. This experience led her to recognize the broader issue of food waste, especially the fact that over 365 million pounds of edible food is wasted daily in America, costing businesses over $90 billion annually and contributing significantly to methane emissions. Komal also addresses the misconception of liability in food donations, citing the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act of 1996, which protects donors from liability, and notes the lack of lawsuits against donors in the past 24 years.

05:01

🚚 The Evolution of Copia's Food Recovery Model

Komal describes the early days of Copia, starting as a college campus initiative where students would pick up excess food from dining halls and events to redistribute to the community. She recounts a specific incident where she had to quickly collect 500 gourmet sandwiches and the challenges she faced in finding nonprofits that could use the food immediately. This experience led to the realization that a more efficient system was needed. Komal explains how Copia evolved to create a virtual marketplace that connects food donors with nonprofits in need. Nonprofits create profiles detailing their needs, and donors list their available food, which Copia's algorithm matches in real-time. The platform also provides drivers for food pickup and delivery, ensuring that the food reaches nonprofits quickly. Komal emphasizes the benefits for businesses, including tax savings and reduced disposal costs, and how Copia helps them track their impact.

10:01

📈 Scaling Copia's Impact with Technology and Partnerships

Komal discusses Copia's strategic shift to leverage existing logistics infrastructure by partnering with food logistics companies DoorDash and Postmates. This integration allows Copia to access a network of 500,000 drivers across 4,000 cities, significantly reducing the time it takes to move food from pickup to drop-off. She explains the financial incentives for businesses to donate food, including updated tax laws that offer enhanced deductions. Copia also provides real-time analytics to businesses, showing the impact of their donations in terms of people fed, methane offset, and water conservation. Komal mentions the use of machine learning for predictive analytics to help businesses reduce waste by understanding the causes of excess food. She concludes by sharing Copia's goal to feed four million people with food that would have otherwise been wasted, emphasizing the company's role in solving both hunger and food waste at scale.

Keywords

💡Food Waste

Food waste refers to the discarding or spoilage of consumable food, which is a significant problem globally. In the video, Komal Amith discusses how her company, Copia, is working to reduce food waste by rescuing surplus food from events and rerouting it to those in need. The script mentions that over 365 million pounds of edible food is wasted daily, which not only represents a loss of resources but also has economic and environmental impacts.

💡Hunger

Hunger is the state of being deprived of sufficient food. The video emphasizes that hunger is not due to a lack of food but rather an ineffective distribution system. Komal shares a personal story of meeting a hungry veteran, which sparked her interest in solving the problem of hunger by addressing the logistics of food distribution.

💡Logistics

Logistics is the management and coordination of the movement of goods, services, and information. In the context of the video, logistics is key to solving both food waste and hunger. Copia uses logistics to efficiently distribute excess food to nonprofits that can utilize it, thus bridging the gap between surplus and scarcity.

💡Nonprofits

Nonprofits are organizations that operate for purposes other than making a profit, often serving the community or specific causes. In the script, Komal mentions that Copia partners with various nonprofits, such as after-school programs, domestic abuse shelters, and senior citizen homes, to distribute food that would otherwise be wasted.

💡Tax Deduction

A tax deduction is an expense that can be subtracted from taxable income, reducing the amount of tax owed. The video discusses how the U.S. Congress passed the Emerson Good Samaritan Act in 1996, which protects donors from liability and allows them to claim tax deductions for food donations, incentivizing businesses to donate excess food.

💡Algorithm

An algorithm is a set of rules or steps used to solve a problem. Copia uses an algorithm to match donors' excess food with nearby nonprofits that need it, ensuring that the right amount and type of food gets to the right place at the right time, as mentioned in the script.

💡Machine Learning

Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence that enables systems to learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed. Copia uses machine learning to develop predictive analytics, helping businesses understand and reduce their food waste by identifying patterns and causes of excess food, as discussed in the script.

💡Subscription Fee

A subscription fee is a recurring payment made by customers for ongoing access to a service. Businesses pay Copia a subscription fee to use their service, which not only helps them contribute to the community but also provides financial benefits through tax savings and reduced disposal costs, as explained in the video.

💡Partnerships

Partnerships refer to collaborative relationships between different parties to achieve common goals. Copia has partnered with food logistics companies DoorDash and Postmates, leveraging their existing infrastructure and drivers to efficiently distribute food, as mentioned in the script.

💡Impact

Impact refers to the effect or influence of one thing on another. The video emphasizes the impact of Copia's work, showing how businesses can see the direct results of their food donations, including the number of people fed and the environmental benefits, thus creating a sense of social responsibility and community involvement.

Highlights

Komal Amith, CEO of Copia, discusses how her team is reducing food waste.

Copia has provided over a thousand meals through their partnership with JW Marriott.

Komal shares her personal journey from South Asian immigrant parents to solving world hunger.

The revelation of food waste came from witnessing a homeless veteran's hunger and nearby food disposal.

Komal highlights the staggering 365 million pounds of edible food wasted daily.

Food waste costs businesses over $90 billion annually and has a significant environmental impact.

Hunger is a logistics problem, not a scarcity issue, according to Komal.

The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act protects donors from liability, yet many are unaware.

Copia's initial food recovery program started on a college campus with students.

Komal's frustration with inefficient food distribution led to the creation of Copia's virtual marketplace.

Nonprofits create profiles on Copia's platform to specify their food needs.

Copia's algorithm matches excess food from donors with nearby nonprofits in real-time.

Copia partners with DoorDash and Postmates to utilize their logistics infrastructure.

Food moves from pickup to drop-off in an average of 26 minutes thanks to the partnership.

Businesses benefit from tax savings and reduced disposal costs by using Copia.

Copia provides real-time analytics to businesses on the impact of their food donations.

Copia aims to feed four million people this year with food that would have been wasted.

Transcripts

good morning

so before I get my name is Komal Amith I

am the founder and CEO of copia and

before I began I'd love to see a quick

show of hands how many of you have

attended a conference a wedding had a

lunch at Google and wondered what

happens to all of this excess food this

is the bride pack it up and take it on

our honeymoon

does it just magically disappear

unfortunately in most cases this

perfectly edible food ends up in the

trash and so I'm here to share how my

team and I are changing that reality how

we're dramatically reducing food waste

to solve the world's dumbest problem and

before I continue I want to give a big

round of applause to the JW Marriott

culinary staff to the green best team

for living their values out loud over

the course of the three events that

we've done with them they've already

provided over a thousand meals and

yesterday I think that Eric mentioned we

provided over 560 meals and one of the

nonprofit's was like I have never had

such amazing chicken it's like such a

bougie food I was like yes you know

that's what's incredible about its

incredible food that we all consumed

that would have otherwise been wasted

was repurposed to feed those in need and

candidly I wasn't actually supposed to

be here you know as the daughter of

South Asian immigrant parents I had four

very distinct career options laid out

for me from an early age doctor lawyer

engineer or a complete failure

well I always want to be Bollywood

actress as you'll come to find I ended

up doing something far more realistic

like solving world hunger and my journey

began a few years ago when I was a

student at Berkeley and I was walking

down Telegraph Avenue when I encountered

a homeless man who was begging for food

you know something about him really

compelled me to stop and invite him to

join me for lunch and during lunch he

sat across from me just like you are

wolfing down his food so he was

unbelievably hungry it wasn't a ploy for

anything else and in between bites he

shared a story he said my name is John I

just came back for my second tour in

Iraq

I've been waiting weeks for my military

benefits to kick in

and because they haven't you know I

haven't eaten in three days and that's

really an old for me this is a veteran

someone would give the most selfless

sacrifice for our country only to come

home to face yet another battle that of

hunger and then adding insult to injury

right across the street

Berkeley's dining hall is throwing away

thousands of pounds of perfectly edible

food and it was a stark reality of those

who have and waste and those who are in

need and starve and those two people

right across the street from one another

and what I realized that this is

emblematic of a much larger problem and

that's that we waste over 365 million

pounds of perfectly edible food every

day and to wrap your head around that

number if you imagine the world's

largest football stadium filled to its

absolute brim not with last night's Pad

Thai or this morning's half Inca saw but

untouched unopened perfectly edible food

that's how much food goes wasted every

single day at America and this costs us

businesses over 90 billion dollars every

year and if food waste were a country it

would be the third largest emitter of

methane after the US and China so

there's a massive economic cost there's

a huge environmental impact not to

mention in some of the wealthiest cities

in America

one in four don't know where their next

meal is coming from so clearly it's not

a lack of food that's the issue rather

an ineffective distribution of that food

meaning that hunger is not a spear City

problem it's a logistics problem and

food waste we found out is also a

logistics problem and that's the

logistics problem we become laser

focused on solving and so you know right

after I met with John the veteran I

marched up to our dining hall managers

and I said you know what do you do with

your excess food they said well we try

not to have any and I said well how

often does that work out for you and

after a lot of pushing and prodding they

admitted that they do have excess food

but they have to throw it away and so I

said well why would you throw it away

when you could go right across the

street to people in people's Park and

donate it and they said because of

liability we don't do that I was like

yeah you know homeless people's

high-powered attorneys are standing by

just to see you like home I can't afford

a hamburger but somehow we can afford a

litigator and more than that you were

going to sell this food to us ten

minutes ago at full price so you're

telling me ten minutes

was good enough for Berkeley students

and now ten minutes later it's not good

enough to feed people who are in need

like right across the street where's the

logic here and I was going to accept

this answer so I did my own research and

I discovered that in 1996 Congress

passed what is called the bill Emerson

Good Samaritan Act and it protects all

donors regardless with your corporation

organization or individual from any

liability and get this in the last 24

years the number of lawsuits or legal

claims that have been filed against any

business or individual has been zero but

everybody in their mother has like a

second cousin twice removed uncle's

hotel that shut down because they

donated food when in fact that never

happened and so I print this out I

demand a meeting this time with the

executive director of our dining hall

and I say I want to start this donation

program this is the right thing to do

here's all the protection I have a

pretty persuasive when I need to be and

so in less than tenements need read and

we went off to start one of the nation's

first food recovery organizations on a

college campus which was essentially

students picking up food from our dining

halls or on-campus events or stadium

arena and then repurposing it to the

community great start hugely inefficient

in a one day I'm sitting in class and

our dining hall manager calls and he's

like hey Komal you know no one came to

this event so we have 500 gourmet

sandwiches left over they need to be

picked up in two hours otherwise we're

gonna have to throw them away because we

need the fridge space so do you want

them like yeah I want them he's like

great come get it you have two hours

mind you I'm still sitting in class and

so I grabbed my bag I dashed across

campus they jump into a Zipcar I go

through all these one-way streets up to

our loading dock and I began loading

this food into the trunk of my car and

it's perishable food right so it's a

move as quickly as possible and so I'm

blasting the AC while I frantically

tried to get these there which is in the

trunk and I finally do it I slam the

trunk now thank god this is amazing food

of course there's gonna be nonprofits

that want it and so then I proceeded to

call 30-plus nonprofits in Berkeley in

Oakland even as far as Richmond I'm like

hey I have this amazing food could use

it

hey I 500 gourmet sandwiches do you need

them a third of them don't answer the

phone a third of them say no we're okay

we don't need any more food today and

the last third of like actually you know

what

you can use 10 sandwiches there 15

sandwiches I'm not great

I have 485 sandwiches and I swear I was

summoning my inner South Asian grandma

kay you you look so skinny take this

food they get it eat it it's like a

random people on the street

I remember being pulled over the road so

frustrated why is it so hard to do a

good thing now why is it so hard to do

the right thing and while these are

gonna be black I said one in four were

where are they when I have this amazing

food to give them and it was this

frustration that was essentially the

birth of my inspiration I thought how

much more effective how much more

efficient this whole process would be if

those who have food could say hey we

have food and those that need a food

could say hey we can use that food and

we matched these two people clear the

marketplace and solve a real problem for

both of them so search is like a

match.com for sandwiches that's what we

went off to build fortunately something

far more sophisticated and so we started

with the nonprofit's some nonprofits

they create profiles on our platform

they'll say this is who we are this is

what we're looking for kind of like

dating profiles except they don't lie to

us about how many times they go to the

gym um they'll say we want prepared

package ready to go food because we

don't have a kitchen or we want uncooked

meat uncooked produce because we have to

cook everything house all right because

I'm from San Francisco and people are

super fancy they're like I want

gluten-free vegan food of course you do

they'll think this is what our

refrigeration capacity is this is what

our freezer capacity is this is the best

points of contact and to be clear like

our nonprofits are not just homeless

shelters they are after-school programs

for underprivileged youth domestic abuse

shelters senior citizen homes veterans

agencies the whole gamut of 400

different from the types of nonprofits

across the country and so this

information has been stored in our

virtual marketplace and now the other

side is our donors and they're our

customers so they are food businesses

and businesses with food and I'll get

into that so our customers requests

pickups of their excess food they'll

tell us this is how much food we have

this is the type of food we needed

picked up by x time great either

geo-located and then this information is

sent to our virtual marketplace and it

kicks in our algorithm and our algorithm

will match this exact amount

and type of food to the nearest

nonprofit that could use it at that day

that time that quantity of food

it'll dispatch a driver nearly anywhere

in the United States to go pick up this

food and then on average less than 26

minutes a driver shows up picks up this

food takes it directly to the nonprofit

the nonprofit confirms receipt of the

foods they'll sign this automated

digitized tax deduction receipt so the

business gets to take advantage of the

tens of thousands to potentially

millions of dollars in tax savings and

then we'll also send them photos and

testimonials of the people that were fed

so you get to see the impact you made by

spending just a few minutes of your time

essentially going copia and so it's

technology to solve both hunger and food

waste at scale and so our customers are

innovative forward-thinking businesses

like Cisco Intel's The Cheesecake

Factory Whole Foods and they pay us a

monthly or annual subscription fee not

only because we're helping them do a

good thing for the community but because

we're helping them do the right thing

for their bottom line by helping them

save tens of thousands to millions of

dollars in tax savings and reduced

disposal costs and so we operate across

the country you know when I first

started off I was hiring retaining and

shirring emotionally supporting our own

drivers which is a very expensive costly

process that I do not recommend for any

early-stage sort of and the thinking was

you know why are we trying to start over

well why are we trying to build up our

while building copia why not piggyback

off of this pre-existing logistics

infrastructure that exists not only all

over the country but all over the world

and so that's what we've done we've

partnered with two of the largest food

logistics companies which are doordash

and post mates and we've done a web book

integration that allows us to tap into

500,000 drivers across 4,000 cities and

that's why on average the food moves

from point pickup to the point of

drop-off in 26 minutes and so we're now

geographically

a stick-like nationwide solution and why

do businesses pay for this so our

Congress updated the tax law in 2015

they it used to be that only see corpse

could get enhanced tax deductions now

it's s corpse and LLC's so all food

businesses it used to be that you could

only write off 10% of your net income

and now it's 15%

well that Delta of five specifically for

food donations let's say you're not

profitable or you've hit that

you can now carry that forward for five

additional years so it makes financial

sense for you do the right thing and

we're also providing you real-time

analytics of how many people did you

feed where did this food go

what was your methane offset how much

water was conserved and we help you

celebrate your impact we tell you where

was like your food is too good to be

wasted and we hope you celebrate that

you say you know you've committed

yourself defeating people and not

landfills and now we're also helping

businesses reduce their excess food by

using machine learning to develop

predictive analytics that help

businesses understand well why is this

waste happening is that the Indian food

station is that the Chinese food station

is that on Mondays they said on Fridays

is a raining outside so employees and

commute to work or fan sink go to a game

like what is driving this excess and

then giving them the actionable insights

they need to reduce over purchasing over

production altogether so again we are

solving both hunger and food waste at

scale and I'm also getting kicked off

the stage we're gonna feed four million

people this year with incredible foods I

would have otherwise been wasted which

is enough to fill up a football stadium

37 times over and if you think about

that the Cardinals can't even fill up

thanks I'm gonna just finish the

sentence if you think about that the

Cardinals can't even fill up one NFL

stadium and we can fill up 37 just

kidding guys Cardinal fans I am gonna

yield the rest of my time which I've out

of but thank you so much

[Music]