Buen Provecho offers a solution to the socio-environmental problem of food waste; that is to say, the surpluses of food that the gastronomic industry cannot place on the market in the usual ways. Connect grocery stores with people interested in buying food at a discount price.
Development graduate Martina Lejtreger was in England when the pandemic struck, accompanied by a major crisis. He experienced its effects firsthand and, after witnessing the actions carried out by multinational companies, decided to create his own entrepreneurship with a triple impact: social, economic and environmental.
He returned to Montevideo with the idea of starting Buen Provecho, but he did not know how to materialize it. At that moment, his aunt, the Business Administration graduate, Daniela Lejtreger, joined the team. In 2021, they launched the pilot plan of entrepreneurship. They communicate to food stores with potential consumers through WhatsApp. “We send out a list of surplus food packages from each store every day.”, they explained to The Observer. Then, they make the reservation in the stores based on the customers’ responses.
During this initial test, Buen Provecho operates in Punta Carretas and Pocitos. The entrepreneurs They are developing an application that will favor the process of connection between the parties, and when it is ready they will expand to all of Montevideo and to some cities in the interior.
One more step
“Our development team is working on the application that we are about to launch,” said Daniela Lejtreger.
Through the app, which works in real time and is georeferenced, stores that have a surplus of fresh food can target customers looking to buy it at a lower cost than the original. The application provides “a lot of information” to make the process faster and more convenient for everyone. Consumers can see what options they have near their location, when they can pick them up and the price (comparing the original and the discount).
What’s more, the application will help the venture to have a greater reach, taking the sustainability linked to the gastronomic industry to a massive level.
Triple impact
According to Lejtreger, Buen Provecho has a good response from both food stores and users. “For the stores we are an ally because we bring them new customers, we help their proposal to become known and, in addition, we help them to recover costs “. For users, the venture provides an innovative service that benefits your economy and reduces your impact on the environment. “We have clients who buy every day,” stressed the graduate in Business Administration.
Buen Provecho is an enterprise of economic impact, because it collaborates with the gastronomic industry; Social, because it expands access to quality food; and environmental, because helps reduce food waste and therefore unnecessary carbon dioxide emissions and the water footprint of the gastronomic industry.
Asked about the reason why Buen Provecho should win the Sustainable Entrepreneurship edition, Lejtreger said: “It would come at an ideal time because we need to publicize our venture. We are just about to launch the application and that this coincides with the digital advertising campaign of The Observer It would help us reach more other sectors of the country much faster. ”It would make the impact manifest earlier than expected.
Who is behind Buen Provecho?
Martina Lejtreger studied a degree in development at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Udelar. For many years she worked as a consultant on development issues in Latin America, always from the public sector. He did a master’s degree in public policy. Today she is on the path to developing her own business, including her expertise in the area but from the private sector.
Daniela Lejtreger studied business administration from ORT University. Later he did an MBA, specializing in finance and mass consumption. He worked in several Latin American countries, but a few years ago he settled in Uruguay. At Buen Provecho, he is in charge of managing the company.
