ReFood

The data on food loss and waste are alarming: according to the FAO (2017), 1/3 of what is produced in the world is lost; of the total wasted food, 46% corresponds to the amount of food that ends up in the dumps. According to the FAO (2019) approximately 11% of the world population suffers from food insufficiency - 39 million only from Latin America.
ReFood is an innovative initiative to combat food loss and waste, with significant social, environmental and economic impacts resulting from the diffusion of technological innovations. ReFood is a georeferenced marketplace integrating cashback and chatbot, developed to convert waste into safe, affordable and sustainable food, making surplus food close to expiration date available for consumers with low prices, thus promoting resilient food, quality of life and contributing to the spread of good safe eating practices.

According to SOLVE MIT statistics, with 30% percent of food lost or wasted globally, a third of the food system’s environmental impact happens without feeding anyone. The degradation of food emits as many greenhouse gases as the entire automotive park on the planet, has a strong impact on public health with disease transmission and consumes a third of inputs, with costs that will never return to the production chain.
Brazil annually sends 41 thousand tons of food to landfills, placing the country among the ten countries with the greatest food waste. The phases related to supply centers and sales outlets stand out as the main points of waste, but the percentage of food wasted by Brazilian families is also high: approximately 20%. On the contrary, with the coronavirus pandemic and its economic effects, Brazil is heading towards returning to the Hunger Map - says the World Food Program, the largest humanitarian agency of the UN. In Brazil, it is estimated that around 5.4 million people will go into extreme poverty due to the pandemic. The total would reach almost 14.7 million by the end of 2020, or 7% of the population, according to World Bank studies.

ReFood is a georeferenced marketplace, with cashback and scheduling of pick-up and delivery, developed to convert food waste into safe, affordable and sustainable food, promoting a resilient supply chain, health and quality of life. The ReFood operates on the 3 pillars of sustainability: (i) improves the quality of our people's food; (ii) reduces food waste and the generation of organic solid waste and all its negative impacts; (iii) converts cost into revenue, increasing the income of producers and small companies; and (iv) we promote education, training and digital transformation.
Producers and merchants will use our platform - APP and WEB - to offer fresh or prepared food on a daily basis, with prices far below those usually used, as they would be discarded at the end of the day. Traders can also advertise processed food close to their expiration date. To ensure compliance with ANVISA's recommendations, sellers will be evaluated by users and this assessment will have repercussions on the fees and tariffs practiced. Moreover, ReFood was designed to be a business for anyone, contributing to a very important cause: our Heroes, people who take care of their communities and receive commission for sales that their networks make in the APP.

The project has a value proposition that benefits the general population, but we believe that the low-income population will benefit the most directly. In Brazil 5.4 million people will go into extreme poverty due to the pandemic, so the total would reach almost 14.7 million by the end of 2020, or 7% of the population, according to World Bank studies. With ReFood the low-income population will have access to safe food at low cost, through a friendly APP marketplace. Payment can be made by the APP itself or directly to the supplier upon delivery of the product.

Entrepreneurs in the food chain: rural producers, beneficiaries and traders - bakeries, supermarkets, fairs, greengrocers, bars, restaurants and hotels, will improve the results of their businesses, minimizing losses, transforming cost into revenue, in addition to being trained in entrepreneurship , sustainable food production and management.

Young people willing to undertake will be trained and will have the opportunity to work defending a cause of extreme relevance and impact on the quality of life in their cities; will have their own business, acting as training and business development agents.

Deliverers will have new demands and an increase in income.

ReFood is technological solution that aims to reduce food loss, promoting a resilient and sustainable food chain with (i) environmental impacts - reduction of the generation of organic solid residues and all the evils caused by it; (ii) social impacts - improving the quality of food and health through access to safe food at low cost; (iii) economic impacts - conversion of cost into revenue for producers and traders, which will reduce losses with the surplus of safe food and income generation for those who wish to act as a business partner (agent), developing markets in exchange for sales commission.

ReFood is a product innovation that combines available technologies in a friendly and intuitive format, to bring to the market a low-cost solution (fees and low tariffs) to solve an extremely relevant problem for all parties involved. We consider our value proposition to be a major innovation in this project: using a marketplace to (i) reduce the waste of safe food and the generation of solid organic waste (ii) promote health by improving the quality of food at low cost; (iii) generate income and work; (iv) strengthening entrepreneurship in the sustainable food chain; and (v) educating the population on the responsible production and consumption of food.

ReFood consists of the combination and customization of two products of the proponent: 1. "PROJECT MASTER" and 2. SNIFFMALL. We have extensive experience with entrepreneurial education and development of innovation projects. 

1. PROJECT MASTER combines face-to-face workshops with online activities and content. In the case of ReFood, we will use the PM to develop multipliers and entrepreneurs more fond of the digital universe. The Agents will act locally to make ReFood a business for themselves, realizing a commission on the sales of the entrepreneurs they insert in the APP, spreading the concept and practices of resilient food supply chain.

2. SNIFFMALL is a marketplace APP that was born with the purpose of digitizing local businesses. We are residents of SEBRAELAB at COLABORE, incubator of social impact startups coordinated by the Municipality of Salvador, and we are also residents of the Innovation Hub of the Northeastern Bank of Brasil. Funcionalities integrated to the marketplace are: scheduled pick-up and delivery service; cashback; chatbot; APP for Android and iOS. We are considerating the development of the WEB platform as well. 

1. PROJECT MASTER has a moodle based tecnology which allows a customization for further projects such as ReFood. The website is under maintenance at the moment, but once we reactive it, will be available for customization on moodle.mestreprojetista.com.br. Moodle is the world's most popular learning management system, with a single robust, sevure and integrated system to create personalised learning environments

2. The tencology os SNIFFMALL is developed: We have website and APP available on Play Store, soon available the iOS version as well. The funcionalities integrated to the marketplace are such as scheduled pick-up and delivery service; cashback; chatbot 

Our theory of change is having a significant improved quality of life  regarding social, environmental and economic aspects, through the creation of a resilient supply chain. By fostering the local economy and creating a resilient consumption network and promoting safe food, ReFood contributes to the strengthening of the Cities and Communities Resilience Strategy. Resilient cities accommodate shocks better and recover faster.  ReFood is also a digital transformation tool for companies, which will have a modern marketing tool, associated with a delivery service (adaptation of physical processes to digital processes), and a simple and friendly management tool, with chatbot with basic guidelines and good management practices: low-cost technology in favor of the survival and competitiveness in this difficult time and in the future.
To achieve our desired future, we set as our main goal to finish the delevopment of the tecnology. Specific objectives in order to finish the development are: (i) implement scheduling; (ii) develop responsive web version; (iii) integration of chatbot; (iv) Replacement of the financial operator in order to offer lower comission for our clients (v) activation of the IOS version of the marketplace.

Currently our product is not available on the market. We beleive that with the support of SOLVE MIT we would reach a significant number of establishments, once the tecnology is ready to be incorporated in the existing supply chain systems in Brazil and all over the world. 

• Total Addressable Market - The world's population
• Serviceable Addressable Market - in 5 years

Our project benefits the general population, but we believe that the low-income population will benefit the most directly. According to IBGE, 2019, 23.9% of Brazilian families are low-income families. Extreme poverty in Brazil totals 13.5 million people. On the other hand, according to estimates by the World Resources Institute (WRI) Brazil, the country wastes 41,000 tons of food per year. From this total, 15% occurs are from restaurants, which is something around 6 thousand tons. We plan to reduce food waste in order to promote well-being in vulnerable families.

• Serviceable Obtainable Market - in 1 year 

Our plan is to bring the product to the market in the state of Bahia, Brazil. In 2017, the Superintendency of Economic and Social Studies of Bahia estimated that about 3.6% of the state's population lived with less than three meals a day. 547 thousand Bahians are without access to basic food consisting of breakfast, lunch and dinner. The amount, according to the Secretary of Justice, Human Rights and Social Development (SJDHDS ), places Bahian families in a range of extreme poverty and, therefore, subjected to a serious risk of food insecurity. 

Our solution is easy to adapt anywhere in the world so we belive we can reach big things together with MIT: with the support of the program we will focus on internationalizing ReFood to impact as many people in vulnerability as possible, offering low commission fee for estabilshments, extra source of income for agents, and idirect education by making the population incorporate habits of the resilient, sustainable consumption. 

1. Low adhesion of establishments
2. Low user adherence 

Challange: Low adhesion of establishments
Actions in response to risk:

1. Execute marketing and communication campaign
2. Enter into partnerships with city halls, technical and higher education institutions, associations and cooperatives
3. Communicate earnings clearly
4. Disclose ANVISA's legislation on the sale of food
5. Offer attractive rates and rates and be transparent in managing results

Challange: Low user adherence
Actions in response to risk:

1. Executive marketing and communication campaign
2. Comunicate benefits 
3. Using gamification  
4. Disclose ANVISA legislation on food comercialization
5. Focus on reaching early adopters - people who CARE about environmental issues and who actually HAVE incorporated habits of resilient consumption

As for the team, we believe that, with the resources of the announcement, we were able to gather the essential skills for the development of a successful innovation project: management, innovation, marketing, design and IT. The project team will be led by Ana Pires, PhD in Administration with an emphasis on Innovation Management and winning clients of the CNI SEBRAE National Innovation Award. Startup teacher and mentor, with great experience in structuring innovation management systems and leading implementer of ISO 56002. A team also has a project management specialist and a control and automation engineering student from Startup Pure, where developed skills in software development.