A technology company that works to reduce food waste has teamed up with the National Football League (NFL) and other organizations to salvage untouched excess food that is often thrown away.

Since 2016, Copia has been working with the San Francisco 49ers to recover excess food waste from the players’ cafeteria. To date, according to a SportTechie report, the company has recovered and redistributed more than 26,000 pounds of high-quality food from the cafeteria, providing more than 22,000 meals to the surrounding Santa Clara community. The average volume per pickup is about 66 pounds, the report noted.

Part of Copia’s mission is to make healthy food more accessible to people in the community by helping businesses redistribute high-quality excess food to feed people in need. Businesses can leverage the company’s technology platform to feed their communities, save money and reduce waste.

SportTechie has more details:

NFL players are used to seeing high-quality protein-rich food in their cafeterias, served up as nourishment to help them prepare for or recover from games and practice. A juicy steak. A lean grilled chicken breast. Roasted potatoes and vegetables. But what happens to the food that goes untouched? Historically, that has ended up in the trash.

For-profit company Copia is working to change that. The technology company reduces food waste by picking up untouched food from places such as NFL stadiums, offices, cafeterias, events, and restaurants and delivering it to non-profit organizations and shelters.

Copia’s platform enables nonprofits to create profiles and make requests for food donations, while its algorithm matches them to places nearby where there is an abundance of food that fulfill the need.

Read the full article here.