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Millions of Americans are living in fear that they will go hungry due to potential delays in SNAP food assistance benefit payments, even after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to make payments in November. That’s in a nation where close to $400 billion in food is wasted every year.
ReFED, a U.S.-based nonprofit that focuses on food waste, recently released its 2025 report showing that $382 billion in surplus food was produced in 2023, the most recent year statistics were available.
“Forty percent of all food is headed for the bin globally,” said Chris MacAulay, head of surplus food marketplace Too Good to Go’s North American operation, which has expanded to 70 cities. “Visualize what that means — it would be like standing in front of the refrigerator and dumping half of it out. It is an incredible amount of waste,” MacAulay said.
Too Good to Go doesn’t divert excess food that might find its way into food banks, but provides an outlet for food that might typically get tossed. It matches grocery stores and restaurants that have surplus food with customers seeking to reasonably priced food. For instance, a local pizza parlor might have some extra pies at the end of the night. Instead of tossing them into the dumpster, they can at least recoup something by offering them on Too Good to Go. Consumers are matched with a “surprise bag” that contains food that would otherwise be sent to the landfill. Too Good to Go estimates eight meals get saved every second through its marketplace.
