When Kimberly Smith joined Copia in 2019, she wasn’t just stepping into a new role. She was stepping into a mission that felt both urgent and obvious: solving the problem of food waste by connecting surplus meals to the people who need them most.
The Value In Giving Back
For anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant, the reality of waste is no surprise. A tray of lasagna that goes untouched after a catering event. Boxes of lettuce that never get used. Perfectly edible food that quietly disappears into the trash. Multiply that by thousands of operators across the country, and the numbers are staggering. If food waste were a country, it would rank as the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases. The United States alone produces three times more food than there are mouths to feed.
Copia was built to close that gap. Its platform uses a matching algorithm to route surplus food directly to nonprofits that need it, handling the logistics that typically make donation programs difficult. Kimberly calls it the “match.com for sandwiches,” while others have described it as the “DoorDash for food donation.” Thanks to partnerships with delivery providers like DoorDash, the process is almost effortless. A restaurant logs the donation through Copia’s app, and Copia handles the rest.
Clear Upside For Restaurants
For operators, the upside is clear. Businesses are protected from liability under the Good Samaritan Act, and since that law was passed in the 1990s, not a single lawsuit has gone forward. Donated food can qualify for up to double the tax deduction, and operators save on disposal costs. Employees feel proud knowing their workplace is giving back, a morale boost that can be hard to find in a tough labor market. As Kimberly puts it, “You do well by doing good.”
Big names like The Cheesecake Factory have already seen the benefits. What began as a way to reduce waste turned into a program that employees themselves championed. Some staff have even shared that they once relied on the very nonprofits now receiving donations, making the impact feel full circle. That kind of connection builds loyalty that no marketing campaign could buy.
Still, Kimberly knows awareness is the biggest challenge. Operators already juggle labor, rising costs, and shrinking margins. Food donation often feels like item number 42 on the to-do list. Copia’s mission is to move it up the list by making the process so simple it feels like common sense. “If you want behavioral change, you need to make it easy,” she says.
Why The Work Matters
And easy it is. Restaurants in 43 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico are already using Copia to turn excess food into community impact. Copia works only with 501(c)(3) nonprofits, including afterschool programs, women’s shelters, homeless centers, food pantries, and church organizations. The result is fewer pounds of waste in landfills, more meals served to families in need, and real dollars saved for operators.
For Kimberly, the work is personal as much as it is professional. She grew up in a clean-plate household and worked in restaurants herself before moving into the tech world. Now, leading Copia, she has found a way to combine meaning with measurable results. Her message to restaurants is straightforward: the food is there, the need is there, and the technology to connect the two is finally here.
In other words, food donation isn’t charity, it’s strategy.
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