FoodShare, an app launched by Washington University students, turns pictures of food into food for the hungry.
Anyone who’s on social media knows how much people love to post, pin, tweet, share, and snap photos of their food. Whether it’s a sumptuous meal at a trendy restaurant or donuts in the break room, food seems to inspire as many online pics as cute kittens.
Now, a St. Louis-based startup wants to turn those pictures into meals for families in need.
FoodShare, launched last month by two Washington University students and a Dartmouth College student, donates to Operation Food Search every time a user shares a photo from one of 50-plus participating St. Louis restaurants.
Update, 5/6/16: FoodShare has officially changed its name to GiftAMeal. Only the name has changed—the buy-one-give-one meal model is still going strong, the startup tells SLM. The rest of this story has been updated with the startup's new name. End of update.
See also: How One Mobile Startup Plans to Eliminate St. Louis Food Deserts
The app is a win-win-win scenario: Restaurants get coveted, digital word-of-mouth advertising. A hungry person in St. Louis gets a free meal. And diners get the satisfaction of knowing they helped someone in need.
“People are able to donate and make a difference without having to reach into their own wallets,” says Jacob Mohrmann, GiftAMeal's chief marketing officer and a senior at Washington University. “More important for the restaurants is getting the word out there about a restaurant they enjoyed.”
GiftAMeal’s founders came up with the idea for the app while on a lunch break. Andrew Glantz, a junior at Washington University, and Aidan Folbe, a freshman at Dartmouth College, were interning at a California venture-capital firm in July 2014 when they stopped for lunch at a nearby restaurant.
“The restaurant didn’t have many customers, but it was good,” Mohrmann tells SLM. The entrepreneurial pair started brainstorming new ways for restaurants to attract customers. “From that, GiftAMeal has slowly progressed into what it is today.”
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Though GiftAMeal has its eye on expanding to more cities, including Chicago, the startup is putting down roots in St. Louis. Most of the first restaurants to sign up for GiftAMeal are in the Delmar Loop, a popular dining spot for Washington University students like themselves.
“I think St. Louis is definitely the right city” to launch GiftAMeal, Mohrmann says. “There are so many mom ‘n’ pop restaurants around. I’ve found people in St. Louis are particularly socially conscious and really do care about helping the city.”
Glantz and Folbe went to Kickstarter to crowdfund the money to build and market the app. They started by asking for $2,000, but 38 days and 67 donations later, they’d raised $5,700. (And they’re hoping to earn $2,500 more by winning the people’s choice award at the Mobileys, the mobile technology awards. You can vote for GiftAMeal here by 6 p.m. November 13.)
GiftAMeal donates a meal to Operation Food Search every time users download the app, post a photo, or share a GiftAMeal photo on their social-media pages. For now, participating restaurants are on a free trial, but soon the money for donated meals will come from eateries, not from the app. So far, GiftAMeal says it has donated more than 800 meals.
This isn't Glantz's first charitable effort in St. Louis. He's also the co-owner of Sharing With a Purpose, which runs the Trading Post, a student-run, nonprofit thrift store that provides affordable home goods to students.
Contact Lindsay Toler by an email at LToler@stlmag.com or on Twitter @StLouisLindsay. For more from St. Louis Magazine, subscribe or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
