Saveful – Helping People Save Food, Money and Time

If food waste were a country, it’d be the third-largest greenhouse gas-emitter. 61% of the world’s food waste happens in the home – so we have the power to change it. But people are time-poor, overworked, and climate fatigued – feeling powerless in what’s seen as a big, bleak problem. Saveful and Shadowboxer set out to change that. By flipping the concept of rigid, time-consuming recipes on their heads and swapping them for flexible meal frameworks that allow users to swap ingredients in and out – Saveful lets home cooks create tasty meals suited to their palates and pantries (and refrigerators, too).

Armed with the insight that people want to end food waste, but are busy and don’t want to measure what’s in their bins, Shadowboxer partnered with Saveful to create an app that helps people save food, money, time and our planet by reimagining an activity people already doing: cooking meals. Packed with educational info on ingredient seasonality, chef-informed tips to stretch, store and repurpose food, the revolutionary Flexible Meal Framework methodology (which empowers people to make chef-created meals with the food they already have), and a track feature to measure impact and boost motivation, Saveful is creating big impact.

Since November 2023, Saveful has gained 12,000+ users, earned 15m media reach and $5.8m ad value with a modest $15k media spend. Users say Saveful’s flexible meal frameworks are a revelation. Federal and State Governments have supported Saveful, 5 local government areas (that’s 250k homes) are on board. The Saveful School Challenge has been launched to 850 Australian schools. Saveful has helped home cooks divert around 1,500kg of food away from bins and into hungry tummies at a time when every spare dollar counts, equating to a potential reduction of around 2,960kg of CO2 emissions.

Saveful is making meal times less stressful and more sustainable with its revolutionary approach to cooking. Rigid recipes don’t exist in Saveful. No more hopping in the car to grab that one missing ingredient from the shops, either. Instead, people can make delicious, chef-guided meals with whatever’s already in their kitchens. Flexible meal frameworks Users can build their own meals and mix and match on-hand ingredients with chef guidance. Hack Home cooks can learn how to think like a professional chef and gain access to expert tips and tricks to get even more value out of the food they’re already buying. Track Metrics drive motivation. Saveful lets users see how much food, money, and carbon they’re saving with every meal they make. Celebrating the wins and encouraging positive change helps foster repeat behaviour. Community challenges Saveful is helping people build and lock in new sustainable habits by allowing them to form communities, working towards set targets and goals to save together. Saveful school challenge Saveful has created a school program to inspire and empower the next generation to build more sustainable habits at home and bring older family members into the conversation and movement.