“This is what it means to be a woman. Come hell or high water, we get things done.”
Jasmine Crowe-Houston spent International Women’s Day introducing Atlanta to what she described as a “dream” project that took her and her startup Goodr three years to roll out.
Goodr Mobile Grocery Store officially launched on March 8 as a shoppable 26-foot truck stocked with grocery items designed to drive directly to underserved communities around Atlanta and provide free groceries.
This is an expansion of Goodr’s signature Pop-Up Grocery Markets that have expanded the startup’s effort to end hunger and food waste through its logistics platform. In 2021, Crowe-Houston told Hypepotamus that the team pivoted its business model to include food distribution, and not just food recovery, in response to COVID-19.
Now, this isn’t your standard food bank. Families come through packed refrigerators, freezers, and shelves to find the food they need. From cartons of eggs to diapers to fresh veggies, families can fill a bag and can get access to key community resources before disembarking.
Goodr’s signature logistics platform will also “help people create meals based off of what they got [from the store],” Crowe-Houston told Hypepotamus while giving a tour of the mobile store.
Tech For Good
Founded in 2017 by Crowe-Houston, Goodr is a sustainable surplus food management platform that helps restaurants and businesses keep food out of landfills.
The startup raised nearly $8 million for a Series A in the summer of 2022. It has received backing from local investors over the years like Collab Capital, Tech Square Ventures, Atlanta Technology Angels, Jewel Burks Solomon, and Engage.
For the Mobile Grocery Store, Goodr received sponsorship from Amazon, Mailchimp, MARTA, Verizon, Volt Energy Utility, and Wellstar Health System (a corporate sponsor of the Engage program).
That corporate backing is helping the startup expand its Mobile Grocery service as food insecurity hits more people across the State of Georgia. One in nine Georgia residents are food insecure, according to the national organization Feeding America. Food insecurity has grown as inflation has hit record highs over the past several months.
“Food insecurity affects varying segments of Georgia’s residents, all for a myriad of reasons. Seniors living on fixed, post-retirement incomes often must make tough choices when unexpected expenses arise,” said Goodr in a statement. “Rural families can face limited access to grocery stores and food pantries. Many households, with at least one working adult in the home, can make too much to qualify for assistance but not enough to adequately support a family.”
