STAMFORD, CT: Today, Food Rescue US is excited to announce that it has joined the Toast Partner Ecosystem. This integration allows restaurants to donate surplus nutritious food to their local communities in a new and more seamless way, at no additional cost through Food Rescue US’s tool, Donor Link. By using their existing Toast point-of-sale (POS) system, restaurant operators are able to leverage a more efficient route to helping eliminate hunger and protecting the planet by reducing food waste and decreasing their greenhouse gas emissions.
Through Donor Link, operators can schedule, itemize, and manage food donations within existing workflows right on their Toast POS. The donation data is then pushed to the Food Rescue US platform, where it is routed to a local volunteer, who can pick up the surplus food and deliver it to a local social service agency serving neighbors facing food insecurity.
The need for surplus nutritious food is very prevalent. In the United States, 1 in 8 American households face food insecurity. At the same time, about one third of all food is lost or wasted on its journey from farms to our plates, equivalent to 54M cars driven for a year. Food rescue organizations, including Food Rescue US, deliver food directly to social service organizations serving their communities, not landfills or warehouses.
Developed in collaboration with Toast and funded by a ReFED Catalytic Fund Grant, Donor Link simplifies the food donation process, making it more seamless for restaurants to participate, and allowing more quality food to reach people facing food insecurity. Donor Link also enables more enhanced data analytics on food donations, including carbon offset reporting and key metrics for potential tax incentives.
Toast is a global technology platform built for restaurant and retail businesses. It works with integration partners in its Toast Partner Ecosystem, a curated portfolio comprising more than 200 partners who deliver specialized technology and services to help business operators increase sales, engage guests, and keep employees happy.
“We are thrilled to welcome Food Rescue US to the Toast Partner Ecosystem, and delighted to offer our customers more seamless food donation through Toast’s integration with Donor Link and Food Rescue US,” says Nick Danforth, Senior Director, Business Development from Toast. Our integration with Food Rescue US is an exciting step that further deepens Toast’s five year, $5 million commitment to addressing food insecurity, making it easier for our customers to help their neighbors and community members in need.”
"Through Donor Link and Food Rescue US, we’ve been more easily able to donate our excess food to local community partners while leveraging our existing technology platform. We're proud to be contributing to solutions that address hunger in Detroit while reducing our restaurant food waste,” shared Eric, Manager of Crispelli’s.
“Donor Link enacts our mission of creating community, eliminating hunger, and protecting the planet,” shared Sharon Enright, CEO of Food Rescue US. “We are grateful to Toast and the ReFED Catalytic Grant Fund for helping to make this impactful development possible.”
“This innovation transforms food recovery from an extra task into a seamless part of daily operations,” said Joe Robbins, Chief Product Officer at Food Rescue US. “Donor Link makes it easier than ever for businesses to do the right thing: help people, reduce waste, and lessen their environmental footprint.”
“Reducing food waste at scale requires making the sustainable choice the easy choice," said Angel Veza, Director of Innovation Initiatives at ReFED. " Donor Link removes barriers by embedding food donation into restaurants’ existing workflows and the tools they already use every day; it’s exactly the kind of innovation that the ReFED Catalytic Grant Fund was created to support.”
About ReFED Catalytic Grant Fund
The ReFED Catalytic Grant Fund accelerates promising food waste solutions across the entire food system. Through targeted open-call cycles, we deploy recoverable and non-recoverable grants, paired with hands-on support, to initiatives with the highest potential for meaningful food waste reduction. Powered by ReFED’s best-in-class insights and deep sector expertise, each grant cycle is built around priority food waste themes, directing catalytic capital where it can unlock greater impact and funding.
About Toast
Toast [NYSE: TOST] is a global technology platform built for restaurant and retail businesses. From the busiest local restaurants and shops to large hospitality brands, Toast helps owners and operators manage their businesses more efficiently, drive guest demand, and build lasting success.
Toast integrates software, agentic AI, payments, financial technology solutions, and hardware with a broad partner ecosystem. Powering billions of purchases throughout local commerce, Toast delivers the precision and innovation required for modern restaurant and retail environments. For more information, visit www.toasttab.com.
Toast.org is Toast’s philanthropic arm, with the mission to enrich the food experience for all. To find out more, visit their website.
Food Rescue US is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to creating community, eliminating hunger, and protecting the planet by directly connecting surplus fresh food with people facing food insecurity. Through its innovative app-based model, Food Rescue US empowers volunteers to transport excess surplus nutritious food from restaurants, grocery stores, and other food donors to social service agencies feeding individuals and families who face food insecurity. By rescuing food that would otherwise end up in landfills, Food Rescue US not only helps to eliminate hunger but also reduce the environmental impact of food waste, a leading contributor to climate change. To date, Food Rescue US has saved 285+ million pounds of CO2 eq and rescued more than more than 206 million meals to 51 communities across 25 states and Washington, D.C.
For more information, visit our website or follow Food Rescue US on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram @FoodRescueUS. To become a food rescuer, sign up at app.foodrescue.us.
