This time I'll introduce you to Imperfect Foods. Here's the scoop:
GROCERIES ON A MISSION
Grocery items that help reduce food waste—
delivered for up to 30% less than national supermarket chains.
From the Imperfect Foods website:
"Our mission:Eliminate food waste and build a better food system for everyone.
If food can be saved, we will save it. With every bite into a misshapen apple, short piece of pasta, or oversized egg we can shape our world for the better. We’re hungry for change and eager to reduce waste on the farm, at the store, and in the home.
The Imperfect Promise
We promise to deliver delicious groceries and fresh produce and we'll make it up to you if we ever leave you a few carrots short of a bunch.
Entrusting your weekly grocery shopping to a bunch of pun-loving googly-eye enthusiasts is a leap of faith. We don’t take your trust lightly. Here is our promise to you:
We promise to deliver delicious groceries and fresh produce...
We promise to reliably deliver fresh, healthy, delicious produce and groceries to your door every week. If we wouldn’t eat it, we won’t put it in a box. Our produce is only ugly in appearance–never in quality. You should never receive produce that’s bruised, damaged, broken, or moldy. And our groceries are top quality, sourced from producers you can trust. We want your box to be your favorite part of the week.
...And we’ll make it up to you if we don’t:
If we ever fall short of this promise, we’ll make it up to you. We’re imperfect too, and sometimes mistakes happen despite our best-laid plans. If you’re ever less than thrilled with your experience, drop our customer care team a note and we’ll do everything we can to make it right.
We are Imperfect Foods. We’re proud to deliver groceries on a mission."
Good organic food. Reduced waste. Fair pricing. We were all-in! We were on the waiting list for a couple of months, but then we received a message that we could customize our first box! We signed up for the Organic Medium Box, with an added Grains Pack. Items are pre-selected weekly and placed in our online "box". So, I hate okra. No problem! Remove that from the box and add in something I do like... maybe dark chocolate covered pretzel pieces. (Good choice, right?) Each week during the ordering window, I can customize the box till it's just right for us and then wait for it to arrive in a few days.
Our first box:
Everything was delivered in a big box that was insulated and included a cold pack. To reduce waste, there is an intentional lack of interior packaging.
All the yummy box contents in one place!
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| ( quarter for size comparison ) |
Signing up and ordering were each easy processes. The website is bursting with information, tips, instructions, and an ever-changing variety of groceries! You select your box size and order frequency according to your needs and those can be changed at any time. There is no contract and you can skip boxes when necessary due to travel, too much on hand already, or just, well, life.
We chose the organic box and the items delivered were labeled organic. The produce was fresh and not "imperfect" in the way we as Americans have come to expect. Items were free of gashes, insect damage, weird lumps and bumps, and nastiness.
There is clearly a focus on reduction of waste in packaging. In non-pandemic times, the packing items may be set out before your next delivery to be picked up for reuse/recycling.
We were happy to find some favorite items, Wildbrine Kimchi and Nature's Path Granola, among the items in their inventory. The Anna Potato Gnocchi was the added Grains Pack item in this box, and it cooked up beautifully (we had it with breaded and oven-baked eggplant from our garden and tomato-basil sauce). The Miyoko's Vegan Butter was a wild card that we tried. It was a hit!
We found the pricing to be excellent for the quality and quantity of organic food we received. You can earn credits by referring friends.
THE BAD:
Because of the lack of packaging, items freely roll about inside the box during delivery. As shown above, the granola box was a bit crushed and also damp from the cold pack, but not at all damaging to the granola inside.
The sizes/quantities of the produce items is perplexing and, I'm sure, part of being "imperfect". For instance, TWO red potatoes? Though when I looked at the order, it DID indicate "1 pound of potatoes". If I want more in the future, I'll up the quantity. The onions were plentiful, but quite small, as seen in the photo above.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were on the wait list with Imperfect Foods for two months. Additionally, as indicated on their website, deliveries can be delayed. Our first order was two days after our scheduled delivery date.
Not really like Christmas when the box arrives. More like, "Oh, good. I didn't have to go to Kroger!"
THE EDIBLE:
That gnocchi is a delight! Cloud-like and comforting and so tasty!
The vegan butter is awesome. I normally buy Earth Balance Soy-Free vegan spread, but this is a step up. It also melts and cooks like a dream for recipes.
THE VERDICT:
Imperfect Foods is a good value with a passionate mission. The food choices and quality are good, too. We have continued to receive boxes and look forward to each week's ordering window.
