Giant Food Teams With Flashfood on Pilot

Food waste solution now available at select stores in Baltimore, northern Virginia

10/27/2021

Giant Food Teams With Flashfood on Pilot Ahold Delhaize USA

Flashfood's food waste-fighting solution is now available at three Giant Food stores in Maryland and northern Virginia.

Giant Food is collaborating with Flashfood, a digital marketplace providing customers access to heavily discounted food nearing its best-by date, to initially offer the app-based solution at three Giant stores in Maryland and Virginia. The pilot program continues the expansion of Flashfood’s partnership with Giant’s parent company, Ahold Delhaize USA, and its regional store banners, which include the The Giant Co. and Stop & Shop.

Flashfood’s app enables customers to browse deals on such fresh products as meat, produce boxes, dairy and bakery items, as well as center store foods and snacks that are nearing their best-by dates. Purchases are made directly through the app, and customers then pick up their orders from the Flashfood zone located inside a participating store.

“Giant is committed to supporting our communities in making choices that are good for them as well as the environment, and reducing food waste is a key part of that,” said Steven Jennings, stakeholder relations and brand lead for health and sustainability supporting Giant Food. “We’re excited to roll out this pilot program with Flashfood to offer our customers valuable savings on fresh foods, while also decreasing food waste in our goal of Zero Waste Diversion by 2025.”

Flashfood is now available for Giant Food shoppers at stores in Catonsville and Ellicott City, Md., and Falls Church, Va.

“We’re thrilled to further our work with Ahold Delhaize USA through this new pilot program with Giant Food,” said Josh Domingues, founder and CEO of Toronto-based Flashfood. “Food waste is a massive contributor to climate change, and about $37 billion worth of food is thrown out each year in the U.S. at the retail level. Sustainability-focused retail leaders like Ahold Delhaize USA and Giant Food are helping us work toward tackling this complex issue and in turn, bring more affordable fresh food options to shoppers.”

In addition to helping select local Maryland and Virginia communities access affordable groceries via Flashfood, Giant donated more than 4 million pounds of food to individuals and communities and $980,000-plus to Giant’s Feeding America food bank partners through the Giant Family Foundation in 2020.

To date, Flashfood has diverted more than 29 million pounds of food, saved shoppers $70 million-plus and more affordably fed hundreds of thousands of families. Besides Ahold Delhaize USA, the company currently works with Meijer, Tops Markets LLC, SpartanNash, Giant Eagle and Price Rite (a banner of Wakefern Food Corp.)

Based in Landover, Md., Giant Food operates 164 supermarkets in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia, with approximately 20,000 associates. Included within the 164 stores are 152 full-service pharmacies, 82 full-service PNC Banks and 24 Starbucks locations. Parent company Ahold Delhaize USA is No. 10 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. Also on PG's list are Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Meijer at No. 18; Keasbey, N.J.-based Wakefern Food Corp. at No. 23; Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle at No. 37; Grand Rapids, Mich.-based SpartanNash at No. 39; and Williamsville, N.Y.-based Tops Markets at No. 66.