Buen Provecho

Buen Provecho is a digital and triple impact solution that reduces food waste by connecting stores with surplus food with consumers willing to buy it at a discount rate.

Buen Provecho is a triple impact solution that simultaneously solves economic, environmental and social challenges. 

On the economic side, food stores face a daily challenge in accurately predicting the demand for fresh food with short shelf lives, such as baked goods or daily menus, whose demand varies due to external factors. Additionally, these stores often struggle to meet strict aesthetic standards for food, such as uniform size and color of fruits. This results in surplus food that is not sold and ends up being thrown away, representing a significant financial loss. Studies by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate that this food waste could amount to 70 million kgs of food and USD 42 million in Uruguay alone for this segment.

As it was validated in the first year of operation, this is a particularly pressing issue for stores that sell or produce a relatively stable stock of food, by showcasing their products to the customers in-store and have a limited time frame to sell them, usually on the same day or a very short period of time. This is particularly true for businesses such as bakeries, boulangeries, greengrocers, rotisseries, salad shops, among others.

What refers to our social impact, Buen Provecho provides an efficient solution for middle and low income persons by offering high-quality and affordable food options. This is particularly important for the increasing number of individuals who have limited time to cook and are restricted by budget constraints, often resorting to lower-quality options such as processed or fast food. Through interviews, it has been established that our main customer base includes working parents who manage the budget and food for their households seeking economic options and single individuals who work and/or study full-time and live alone, all of whom have limited time and budget for food management.

Lastly on what concerns our environmental impact, Buen Provecho addresses a critical issue of our time by providing a solution to combat climate change. It is estimated that ⅓ of all food produced in the world is wasted, representing between 8% and 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions. This is because when food is wasted, the resources used to produce, transport, and distribute it are also wasted, leading to a significant amount of CO2 emissions. Furthermore, when food decomposes, it releases methane and other greenhouse gasses, making food waste one of the leading contributors to global climate change. Buen Provecho aims to reduce food waste and mitigate the negative impact on the environment.

Buen Provecho is an innovative digital platform that connects food stores that have a daily surplus of fresh foods such as bakeries, greengrocers, supermarkets and hotels with customers who are looking for high-quality, fresh food at a discounted price and reduce food waste. Our platform helps these food stores to sell their surplus food through an alternative commercial channel to customers who are looking for affordable and fresh food options in a convenient and easy way.

This entrepreneurial venture is unique in the market by revaluing the surplus food through its innovative digital platform technology. The platform allows food stores to sell this food immediately, without incurring any additional logistics costs. The customers can easily locate the nearest store with surplus food and purchase it at a discounted price, by retrieving the pack directly from the store. 

The platform consists of a web app for stores and a mobile app for users. It operates in real-time, is georeferenced, and has filtering options to optimize searches and notifications.

On a daily basis, the stores can advertise their surplus food on the platform, including details such as the specific types of food available, the original and discounted prices, and the pickup schedule. The platform offers significant discounts on the food, ranging from 35% to 70% depending on the store segment.

Our platform, "Buen Provecho", connects food stores with surplus fresh food to interested customers who are looking for a discounted price to avoid waste. Users can browse and filter available packs of food by store type, dietary preferences, and geographical proximity. Customers purchase their pack on the app and pick it up at the store. When they pick up their order, the app notifies them of the monetary savings and environmental contribution they made with their purchase.

Buen Provecho has measurable positive impacts on the markets where it is implemented, directly contributing to the achievement of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 "Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns" specifically in relation to its target 12.3 "By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses."

It is an innovative enterprise that falls within the circular economy and generates a positive triple impact: on the economy, society, and planet by revaluing essential products such as food, which are currently wasted in the traditional linear economy.

This initiative aligns with the United Nations' post-pandemic agenda to "build back better," which promotes new, more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive models of development. The private sector will play a crucial role in creating business models that contribute to the 2030 Agenda.

At the economic level, Buen Provecho will allow recovering costs and generating new profits in the culinary industry, which along with the associated tourism sector, are two of the most affected sectors by the current pandemic. The ECLAC estimates that in South America the accumulated losses in these sectors until 2023 will be around 53,000 million and 72,400 million dollars. The gains generated by Buen Provecho will also have a positive impact on gender inequality, as the culinary industry is a feminized sector of the economy.

Buen Provecho makes a positive impact on the environment by contributing to the achievement of the SDG 13 "Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts" as food waste is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Between 8 and 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food that is not consumed, making food waste one of the top contributors to climate change globally. If food waste were a country, it would rank as the third highest polluter, surpassed only by the United States and China.

The enterprise will directly contribute to reducing waste at the retail level, and will also help build a community that is aware of the environmental impacts of food waste, both at the level of individual households, by providing recommendations and other tools to reduce it.

Buen Provecho also contributes to SDG 3 "Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages" by allowing improvements in the food quality of people who join as users of the app, who have the opportunity to replace their consumption of fast food and ultra-processed foods with fresh, high-quality foods at affordable prices.

Our solution provides quality food at an affordable price for the increasing number of people who lack the time to cook and are budget-constrained, often opting for lower-quality foods such as processed and fast food. 

Finally, Our platform not only helps stores recover costs through the sale of surplus food but also generates other benefits such as attracting new customers, increasing sales, and being associated with sustainability. With our digital platform, stores can offer their products to a wider audience beyond their regular customer base. Additionally, as customers pick up their discounted food packs in-store, they often purchase other full-priced items as well. By joining our platform, stores become part of a community that is aware of the impact food waste has and actively works to combat it on a daily basis.

Our team is composed of individuals with a diverse set of skills, backgrounds, and experiences that position us well to deliver our solution and solve the problem at hand. We have a combination of technical and business expertise, with team members who have experience in software development, business development, and sustainable development. This allows us to approach the problem from multiple angles and ensure that our solution is not only technically sound, but also viable from a business standpoint.

In terms of life, volunteer, and work experiences, our team members have a variety of experiences that have helped us understand the experiences of those we serve. For example, several members of our team have worked or volunteered in a local NGO that recovers fruits and vegetables that would be wasted at the Metropolitan Agro-Food Unit and on farms and deliver them to social organizations that provide meals to those in need. 

The team is composed of five people.

Daniela Lejtreger who has a degree in Business Administration from the ORT University Uruguay and an MBA from IAE Business School. She is an executive with extensive experience managing large companies in the region. She is an expert in retail and mass consumption and has participated in the development, implementation, and acquisition of companies in these industries in several Latin American countries. She is in charge of developing innovation projects (launching new products, redesigning processes) in the region. She has developed technology projects in Central America, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. She has experience leading both in-person and remote teams. She is also a mentor for degree projects, tutor, and business plan corrector at the ORT University Uruguay. 

Within Buen Provecho, she is directly in charge of the commercial, operations, customer service, administration, and finance areas. 

Martina Lejtreger is an expert in partnerships for inclusive and sustainable development. She holds a degree in Development from the Universidad de la República (Uruguay) and a Master's degree in Public Policy from the University of Oxford (United Kingdom). She has extensive experience at the government level and with international organizations in project management, communication, and leadership of multidisciplinary and multicultural teams.

Within Buen Provecho, she is directly in charge of marketing, community development, social responsibility, and partnerships.

Regarding the development team, as it is a small technical team, all members take on all responsibilities related to software development, from architecture design to project management and development of the backend server and web and mobile applications.

Ian Spektor holds a degree in Systems Engineering from ORT University
and has 3 years of experience working in various roles in the field,
starting as a full-stack web developer at a software factory, then as a
backend development intern at Amazon, and currently as a machine
learning engineer at a local consulting firm

Alejandro Kugelmass holds a degree in Systems Engineering from ORT
University and has 3 years of experience in various types of companies
in the field and fulfilling different roles in them. He started as a
full-stack web and mobile developer at a Uruguayan software factory
working for clients in the United States. He currently works as a
backend engineer at a regional food delivery company

Marcel Canú is a Systems Engineer graduated from ORT University in
Uruguay. He has 3 years of professional experience in software
development, working with various technologies, primarily in Python,
Javascript, and PHP. Currently, he works as a full-stack web developer
at a software factory, working for clients in the United States.

Overall, our team's diverse set of skills, backgrounds, and experiences have provided us with a unique perspective on the problem we are trying to solve and have helped us to develop a solution that is tailored to the needs of those we aim to serve.

We began by investigating a prevalent issue in our community during the pandemic: food waste and limited access to food options. We observed that while food venues aimed to reduce waste by producing less, this often resulted in customers being unable to purchase their desired food while businesses also discarding unsold items.

On the other hand, we also recognized the difficulty many people faced in securing access to healthy meals on a daily basis. Most individuals lacked the time and energy to plan and prepare three nutritious meals a day, especially if they were responsible for feeding multiple people in a household. This often led to relying on pre-prepared, less healthy options, which are typically more expensive, resulting in an unbalanced and unhealthy diet for many.

Recognizing that this issue of food waste and lack of access to healthy food options was prevalent globally, we sought to investigate potential solutions from different parts of the world that could be adapted for our community in Uruguay. 

Next, we engaged with numerous local food venues to assess the extent of the food waste problem they were facing. We found that the majority of them were indeed struggling with food waste. We then delved deeper to understand the specific challenges they faced and the actions they were willing to take to address the issue.

We also reached out to potential users to understand their needs and identify what modifications were necessary to existing solutions to better meet their requirements. After gathering and analyzing this information, we identified the most impactful insights and used them as the foundation for a pilot test.

The pilot program we implemented consisted of daily notifications sent via WhatsApp to enlisted users, informing them of the available food offers for the day. Users could then express interest in purchasing a food pack by replying to the message, after which the corresponding store would be notified to reserve the food pack. The pilot program lasted for approximately 6.5 months and engaged around 900 users and 13 participating stores.

During the pilot phase, we received valuable feedback from both users and store managers which we carefully considered in the development of the application, ensuring it was tailored to meet their specific needs.

After the pilot phase, we released a Minimum Marketable Product (MMP) of the application for the pilot users to test and provide additional feedback as beta testers. The beta testing phase lasted for 2.5 months, following which we made the final adjustments and released the public version of the app.

Since the public launch of the app, we have been continuously working to improve the app and have released several updates with new features to enhance the user experience.

The solution is innovative because there's nothing similar in Uruguay or the region. The business model is adapted from similar solutions in other parts of the worlds to better fit the priorities and necessities of people in Latin America

We are currently serving around 25 thousand people and we are planning on serving more than a 100 thousand people next year