When entrepreneur Andrew Glantz was developing his socially conscious food donation app, GiftAMeal, in 2015, he knew it would need to be flexible enough to adapt to changing community needs. He was a student at Wash. U. then, and by the time he graduated in 2017, his nonprofit already had provided 30,000 free meals to St. Louisans in need through local nonprofit Operation Food Search (OFS).
This year, the young CEO says his program is evolving to serve people affected by the COVID-19 crisis, and it has contributed funding for a total of 410,000 meals to date—nearly half a million pounds of food.
Before restaurants stopped dine-in service due to the outbreak, notices at tables of participating eateries could be seen around town, showing people how to help the hungry through Glantz’s nonprofit. You simply downloaded the free app, snapped a picture of your meal and uploaded it to GiftAMeal, which then made a contribution to OFS.
In the current crisis, diners still can help by photographing their takeout food, delivery meals and gift cards purchased from participating restaurants, according to Glantz. “The need definitely has increased in the last couple of weeks,” he explains. “To help out even more, we recently held a $5,000 matching donation challenge, and people really stepped up. We ended up receiving three times our goal from individuals and businesses. With GiftAMeal’s matching $5,000, it added up to a $20,000 donation to OFS.” That total will be enough to provide 8,000 family meal kits for locals in need.
Glantz says elderly residents and children who have lost access to school meals are especially vulnerable right now, so he is working to stay in touch with their needs. GiftAMeal also is thinking of its partner restaurants; it has been flexible about collecting their membership fees during the crisis and is working on new ideas to drive business their way and help them stay open.
“Even though times are tough, restaurants have called to ask how they can donate extra food, and other people have offered great ideas as well,” Glantz says. “The program has exceeded our goals to date, but we know there will always be more St. Louisans who need our help, so there’s much more work to do. It’s challenging to ask people to give even more at a time like this, but it’s encouraging to see how St. Louisans are coming together to help their neighbors. I personally look through the pictures diners upload every day, and it keeps me inspired to think of new ways we can help.”
For more information, visit giftameal.com or download the GiftAMeal app.
Pictured above: Andrew Glantz with his team.
