Dive Brief:

• Flashfood is partnering with grocery store operator Yellow Banana to offer its food waste app services at all Yellow Banana Save A Lot locations, according to a Wednesday announcement.   
• This partnership extends the digital marketplace, which is centered around food waste prevention, to five cities, two of which are new regions for Flashfood.
• The deal with Yellow Banana Save A Lot stores follows Flashfood’s ongoing expansion across the U.S.

Dive Insight:

Only two days after announcing its expanded partnership with Stop & Shop, Flashfood unveiled a new tie-up with Yellow Banana Save A Lot stores, which brings the company’s food waste app for the first time to Jacksonville, Florida, and Dallas. 

In addition to these two new cities, the partnership includes all Yellow Banana Save A Lot stores located in Chicago, Cleveland and Milwaukee. 

“Our mission is to deliver essential nutrition to working families at affordable prices,” Ademola Adewale-Sadik, Yellow Banana’s co-founder, said in the press release.

Meat, produce boxes, bakery goods, dairy and center store products are available for purchase from Save A Lot via the Flashfood app. Shoppers make their purchases directly on the app and then pick up the order at a participating Save A Lot store, according to the announcement.

The partnership aims to help food insecure shoppers, specifically those in Dallas County, Texas, and Duval Country, Florida, where food insecurity rates are above the national average at 14.8% and 12.2% respectively, according to the press release, citing Feeding America data. 

The tie-up with Flashfood comes as Yellow Banana has focused on making improvements to the Save A Lot stores it acquired in 2021. Yellow Banana Save A Lot stores in Chicago received a $13.5 million municipal community development grant in July to improve food access across the city. When the grant was given, Yellow Banana announced its intent to remodel five Chicago Save A Lot stores as well as reopen the Auburn-Gresham location that closed in 2020. 

Flashfood has continued its U.S. expansion drive after raising $12.3 million in Series A funding earlier this year. This year alone, it has onboarded more than 200 stores across nine grocery partners. In July, the company announced an expanded partnership with Giant Eagle. 

Flashfood’s expansion comes at a time when U.S. grocers are facing pressure from consumers and investors to boost their sustainability efforts. The Food Industry Association has called on grocers to prioritize food waste reduction.