NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--COVID-19 is shuttering businesses across New York City and shifting thousands off of grocery lines to food bank lines. In response, spare, a national non-profit, today announced a new feature inside its mobile application, called ‘spare hunger’, designed to support struggling families across the city.
spare hunger rounds up its users’ take out and grocery orders to the next dollar, donating 100 percent of funds raised to Food Bank For New York City.
“Food Bank For New York City’s network has seen a 50 percent increase of those in need of food in just the past few weeks,” says Andra Tomsa, founder and CEO of spare. “Through spare hunger, just one dollar provides 10 meals. By engaging 200,000 New Yorkers to round up an average of $15 per month on take out and grocery purchases, we can generate $18,000,000 in six months and provide 180 million meals to families in need.”
spare hunger tracks users’ donations and displays the number of people they have personally helped feed. Round ups are tax deductible, and donors will receive an official year-end record of their donations for tax purposes.
Tomsa has leveraged her undergraduate degree in economics, her master’s degree in international political economy and development, her time as a financial advisor, and years spent in the hospitality industry to develop the solution that New York City needs today to feed families in crisis.
spare works with Plaid, an accredited third party, used by Venmo & Robinhood, to ensure data security. spare hunger is available nationwide and can be used to tackle hunger relief in markets outside of New York City. Users can download spare hunger on the App Store and Google Play to feed hungry New Yorkers right now.
ABOUT spare and spare hunger
spare is a five year old nonprofit that rounds up users dine out and bar bills to help families struggling with hunger in their homes. In response to Coronavirus, users have wanted to help more than ever. To that end, spare has launched a new background feature in its mobile application called ‘spare hunger’ that focuses not on bar and restaurant bills but grocery and takeout orders.
spare typically retains a portion of roundups to fund its operations and raise awareness. But, during this period of crisis, spare has committed to giving 100% of user donations to food banks to provide assistance quickly and maximize its impact. Please visit spareusa.org to learn more.
