“Ugly produce at pretty prices”

That is the slogan for Cerplus, an app aiming to prevent food waste. San Francisco foodie Zoe Wong came up with the idea for the app while strolling through farmers markets. Shocked at how much vendors threw away at the end of the day, she decided something needed to be done.

Initially, Wong launched a company called Revive Jams, preserving and reselling unwanted fruits. However, she noticed that food was still being wasted and the cost of preserving and distributing her products was too much for her small business budget.

This was when Cerplus was born.

Cerplus is an online marketplace (for the San Francisco Bay area only -for now!) that connects users with surplus or unwanted fruits and vegetables for a fraction of the cost. Sellers can post produce, buyers browse through potential deals, and Cerplus picks up and delivers the order to the customer. With this method, vendors can still make money on extra or “ugly” produce, consumers get quality, affordable produce, and food waste is drastically reduced.

You can read more about Zoe’s work on the Cerplus website.

(Image from www.getcerplus.com)