Odd Bunch is the latest company to spring up to address food waste. The Ontario company sells what it calls “odd” or “ugly” fruits and vegetables that don’t meet major grocery retailer’s standards and sells them at discounted prices.
Divy Ojha is the founder and says the company works directly with farms, greenhouses and distributors in southwestern Ontario to source imperfect produce. Produce, which is sold in boxes ranging in size and price from $20 to $46, is purchased online and delivered directly to consumers’ homes on a weekly basis. The company also offers small and medium sized boxes of varied organic produce.
Odd Bunch notes on its web site that it “source fresh fruits and vegetables that are great to eat but are thrown away due to their imperfect appearance or surplus. Think of an apple orchard that picks their harvest in the fall and stores all of their apples in a cooler. They sort and grade through the product as they sell and, in the process, accumulate volume of apples that don't meet strict cosmetic standards of retail stores. This could be sizing, shape, symmetry, discolouration or scarring. This is where Odd Bunch steps in to source at a fair price” and pass it on to shoppers.
The new business launches February 23 in Toronto.