Tender Greens Palo Alto Shares Surplus Food with the Community

Each year, nearly 92 billion pounds of food—almost 40% of our food supply—ends up in landfills. This waste not only harms the environment but also represents a lost opportunity to help those in need.

Tender Greens Palo Alto is taking action by partnering with Copia, a leading food recovery platform, to ensure that surplus food doesn’t go to waste but instead nourishes the local community. Through this partnership, Tender Greens is able to share its extra food with those who need it most, turning what could be wasted into a source of nourishment.

Since partnering with Copia in October 2024, Tender Greens Palo Alto has donated 850 pounds of food to seven different local nonprofits, providing 700 meals to those in need, and preventing 2,600 pounds of CO2e from being emitted into the atmosphere (that’s the equivalent emissions as consuming 133 gallons of gasoline!). Additionally, 192,800 gallons of water have been saved thanks to these efforts. 

Here’s how it works:

1. Donation logging: At the end of the day, Tender Greens has three bags of greens left over and some roasted chicken and potatoes. A Tender Greens employee uses the Copia app to log the donation items.
2. Scheduling a pickup: The staff member selects a convenient time window for the donation pickup in the Copia App. Copia matches the donation with a local nonprofit, dispatching a driver to pick up the food and deliver it directly to those in need — easy as that!
3. Impact tracking and celebration: Donation details are automatically uploaded into Tender Greens’ dashboards, calculating their environmental and social impact, so Tender Greens can celebrate with their team and community!

This simple process is already having a significant impact. Tender Greens has helped provide meals to local organizations and reduced the environmental costs of food waste. By diverting food from landfills, they’re reducing methane emissions—28 times more potent than CO2—and saving valuable resources like water, labor, and fertilizer.

Copia and Tender Greens are just getting started. Tender Greens is leading the way for other businesses by showing that the technology exists to make donations simple for their operations and scalable, ensuring every donation finds a home. 

Tender Greens Palo Alto’s commitment to sustainability and community support is an inspiring example of how businesses can use their resources for good. By using Copia’s platform to redirect excess food to those in need, they’re showing that reducing food waste isn’t just about saving money or improving efficiency—it’s about making a tangible difference for people and the planet.