The Deal Room this week brings together a TRIFECTA of some of my favorite companies; Cali BBQ Media and its Restaurant Technology Substack; Jose Andres Group and Copia.
Shawn Walchef, one of the hospitality industry’s leading storytellers traveled to NYC to see how the Jose Andres Group uses Copia technology to put Michelin quality food in hungry hands.
There are few things in our industry more absurd that this: the US throws away over 60 million tons of food annually, while millions of Americans remain food insecure.
America doesn’t have a food shortage issue or a supply problem. We have a logistics and systems problem. That’s where Copia, a technology platform that automates food redistribution to solve the logistics of hunger, comes in.
This collaboration between Jose Andres Group and Copia, has led to JAG becoming the gold standard when it comes to food donations b/c they have made it operationally efficient and seamless to turn what was once a wasted commodity into a valuable asset.
Shawn is an elite storyteller (while I’m a long storyteller) and in the link below, you’ll hear the story of how JAG’s Mercato transforms a once burdensome task into a seamless daily habit.
You can checkout out Shawn’s story here: Feeding People, Not Landfills with Food Donation Technology
For operators, let’s be clear, most want to donate food. But hospitality runs on velocity and if something is slow, unreliable or interrupts service, it dies. Copia solves the one thing that kills donation programs: operational inefficiency.
If José Andrés Group, operating at Michelin-level standards and serious volume, can institutionalize surplus donation into daily workflow…then let’s face it, so can a 3-unit operator in Dallas, or a 200-unit QSR brand in the Midwest.
This isn’t charity bolted onto operations. It’s operational design.
For investors, this is where impact meets infrastructure.
Copia isn’t a “feel good” app, its logistics orchestration, demand matching, driver dispatch, compliance tracking, and data capture.
It transforms food waste from a cost center into an ESG narrative, community goodwill, tax efficiency, brand equity, and measurable impact.
And in a world where capital is increasingly scrutinizing sustainability and measuring impact, Copia = infrastructure.
The biggest opportunities sit where massive inefficiency exists, where behavior wants change and technology removes friction. Food waste checks all three boxes (another TRIFECTA). 😊
But the most powerful part of Shawn’s story isn’t just the redistribution, it’s the dignity. Michelin-standard paella landing at a shelter doesn’t just feed someone, it restores dignity and humanity.
For hospitality brands, that matters (or at least it should).
Operators, your surplus food isn’t waste, its reputation, community currency, and its alignment with why many founders got into this business in the first place. And let’s face it, if you’re not designing waste out of your system, someone else will.
Investors, the next wave of hospitality tech isn’t about flashy front-of-house widgets, it’s about solving large, invisible inefficiencies.
The best ResTech saves time, preserves margins, reduces friction, strengthens brand equity, and creates a measurable social impact.
Copia sits right at that intersection!
My final thought for this week’s Deal Room, the hospitality industry doesn’t exist to throw things away. It exists to serve.
Technology that aligns operations with mission? That’s the future.
Feeding people instead of landfills isn’t just good optics. It’s operational alignment and nd alignment scales.
To learn about Copia and opportunities to engage as an operator or an investor with this important company, please click here (or contact me directly).
