DealShaq was founded out of a hot gumbo of frustration, passion, and determination. On the one hand, 40% of the food produced in the US is not consumed by people. In the US grocery retail / distributor industry alone, about 16 billion pounds of food could not be sold last year, of which 2.5 billion (15.5%) was donated, while the remaining 13.5 billion pounds of non-donated unsold surplus foods (N-DUSF) was discarded or recycled. On the other hand, more than 47 million of our neighbors including 14 million children, are struggling financially, and suffering from food insecurity. As a food rescue volunteer, DealShaq’s founder & CEO Alfred Toussaint witnesses these struggles from both grocers and food pantry clients 2 to 3 times a week.

Food insecurity is exacerbated by the 22.6% increase in the food CPI from May 2020 to May 2024, resulting, unsurprisingly, with 88% of food-insecure residents in the DMV citing food price increases having major impact on their finances (CAFB). DealShaq aims to fundamentally disrupt the status quo of retail food loss & waste and food insecurity in the communities we serve, by challenging its grocery food retail partners to target a substantial percentage of their N-DUSF, for drastic discount aimed preferentially to financially struggling food-insecure families first.