11A - Idea Napkin No. 1

1.    Me: My name is Beatriz Galdona and I am a junior at UF studying economics and political science with a minor in Spanish. I am a diligent, disciplined student, and I am hoping to attend law school after graduating from UF. I have experience working in business operations, specifically in the health care field. As a lawyer, I am interested in working with contractual law in the realm of nonprofit organizations, health care, or public policy. I see this business concept playing a role in my life because it would combine my work ethic and drive to improve others’ lives while also allowing me to utilize my analytical skills through the law.

2.    What I’m offering: I am proposing a middle-man business operation to connect restaurants with food kitchens, homeless shelters, and other places that provide services to underserved communities. The concept is to set up a business that would take leftover, uneaten food from restaurants and deliver it to nonprofit organizations that feed our homeless or underprivileged populations. The final customers are the people who would eat the food, but my direct customers would be the restaurants and nonprofits that I would be connecting. My idea helps restaurants meet their social responsibility goals and obviously benefits the nonprofits by providing them food to ease their burden. Additionally, this idea limits waste because restaurants will be producing less garbage overall.

3.    Who I’m offering it to: My business idea is directed toward restaurants looking to better serve their communities as well as nonprofits in need of extra assistance with locating food supplies. The restaurants share a social responsibility to help underprivileged communities as well as produce as little waste as possible. The nonprofits share a constant need for greater resources. 

4.    Why they care: Nonprofit organizations inherently care about the communities they serve. They will utilize any resource available to them to make it easier to get quality food to their customers. The restaurant aspect is a bit more difficult to achieve, but social responsibility has become an increasingly salient topic in today’s sociopolitical climate. 

5.    Core competencies: I have a knack for thinking of various solutions to the same problem and deciding which would be most effective and why. I am also a planner; I love to plan ahead and get tasks done ahead of time so that if (and when) something goes wrong, there is still a chance to fix it.

I believe that these elements fit together well. I previously had a different business idea, and I already think this one is both more viable and more meaningful. I believe this business has the potential to be successful and make true positive change in the communities it serves. However, there are obvious challenges such as finding restaurants willing to donate food and nonprofits willing to pay a decent price for the service. Even so, I think this would benefit everyone involved.