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Flashfood and Kroger Announce Pilot to Expand Affordable Grocery Access in Richmond

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Flashfood and Kroger Announce Pilot to Expand Affordable Grocery Access in Richmond
News

News

Flashfood and Kroger Announce Pilot to Expand Affordable Grocery Access in Richmond

2025-07-31 17:59 Last Updated At:18:20

RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 31, 2025--

Flashfood, the leading affordable grocery app, has partnered with the Mid-Atlantic Division of The Kroger Co. to introduce its program across 16 Richmond-area Kroger stores. The rollout offers local shoppers significant savings on groceries while supporting Kroger’s commitment to sustainability, affordability and healthy food access.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250731647484/en/

Through the partnership, Richmond-area customers can purchase fresh groceries in surplus or nearing their best-by date—including meat, dairy, produce, and baked goods—at big discounts through the Flashfood app. Items are then picked up from designated Flashfood zones inside participating Kroger stores.

“Kroger’s leadership in operational excellence makes them an incredible partner to demonstrate what Flashfood can deliver when executed at scale,” said Jordan Schenck, CEO of Flashfood. “We’re thrilled to be kicking off this partnership and to support Kroger’s impactful Zero Hunger, Zero Waste program. Together, we’re not only expanding access to fresh, affordable groceries in Richmond – we’re also demonstrating how innovation can leverage surplus and end-of-life food to serve communities, support retailers and keep good food out of landfills.”

In its recently published 2024 Impact Report Flashfood demonstrates the role food waste plays in today’s affordability, health and nutrition crisis. In a 2025 shopper survey, 70% of Flashfood shoppers reported a healthier diet since using Flashfood, and 65% report eating more fruits and vegetables. This is a powerful health outcome, and the partnership with Kroger is an important step to achieving the availability required. It’s a tech-driven, scalable solution that drives value on both sides of the marketplace.

“At Kroger, we’re always looking for innovative ways to serve our communities, reduce our environmental impact and move closer to our Zero Hunger Zero Waste goals,” said Mid-Atlantic Division President Kate Mora. “Our partnership with Flashfood helps us achieve all three. This app is another resource for customers who are looking for affordable options to feed their families while also keeping perfectly good food out of landfills. It’s a win for our community and the planet.”

With this expansion, Flashfood is now available in more than 2,000 stores across North America. To date, the program has diverted over 140 million pounds of food from landfills and saved shoppers more than $355 million on groceries.

For more information, including a list of participating Kroger locations and to download the app, visit www.flashfood.com.

About Flashfood

Flashfood is on a mission to feed families, not landfills. The app marketplace connects shoppers with fresh produce, meat and other groceries at up to 50% off. By partnering with retailers across North America, Flashfood offers shoppers nutritious staples at affordable prices, and reduces the amount of food going to landfills. To date, Flashfood has rerouted more than 140 million pounds of food from landfills while saving its shoppers more than $355 million on their groceries. Flashfood is a B-Corp certified company currently partnered with more than 2,300 stores across North America. For more information, please visit www.flashfood.com.

About Kroger’s Mid-Atlantic Division:

The Mid-Atlantic Division operates more than 100 stores in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio. Based in Richmond, Virginia, the Mid-Atlantic Division employs about 18,000 associates. Kroger is dedicated to eliminating hunger in the communities it serves through partnerships with nine Feeding America food banks and numerous local organizations. The grocers Zero Hunger | Zero Waste efforts are aimed at ending hunger in Kroger communities and eliminating waste in stores by 2025. Kroger also supports breast cancer research, the military and their families and more than 4,000 nonprofit organizations. Last year, Kroger Mid-Atlantic donated 16.5 million meals to charity and 3,606,296 pounds of food to food bank partners.

Flashfood and Kroger Announce Pilot to Expand Affordable Grocery Access in Richmond

Flashfood and Kroger Announce Pilot to Expand Affordable Grocery Access in Richmond

AL HENAKIYAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Ricky Brabec deliberately gave up his motorbike lead over Luciano Benavides in the Dakar Rally while Nasser Al-Attiyah was happy to cruise through another day closer to his sixth car title on Thursday.

Al-Attiyah started 346-kilometer stage 11 between Bisha north to Al Henakiyah with a 12-minute overall lead and let it drop to less than nine minutes over new second-placed driver Nani Roma in a Ford.

Al-Attiyah was content to let Dacia teammate Sébastien Loeb catch up and pass him to have a teammate nearby for any help and to minimize errors on the mazy, dirt track. Al-Attiyah was 17th, nearly 13 minutes behind stage winner Mattias Ekström, and said he needed to execute the same plan on Friday's last effective racing stage before the end on Saturday.

“If we lose two, three, four minutes no problem,” Al-Attiyah said. “We just need to finish this Dakar in first place.”

Honda cooked up a strategy in the Saudi desert for Adrien van Beveren to open the way and let Brabec catch up after the 190-kilometer pit stop and pick up time bonuses.

Brabec boosted his overall lead from 56 seconds to nearly four minutes just 25 kilometers from the finish. He was also within a minute of the stage lead but he slowed down so KTM rival Benavides was the new overall leader, but only by 23 seconds.

Brabec got his his wish to start Friday's stage 12 six minutes behind Benavides, so he can eye him. They head west to the rally starting point of Yanbu on the Red Sea coast on 311 kilometers of gravel, some river beds with a finish in the dunes.

“A little bit of strategy today and hopefully it pays off tomorrow,” Brabec said. "I feel like its going to be a good day. We’re going back into the rocks so it will be a little bit better for us.”

Brabec is counting on his experience of winning the Dakar in 2020 and 2024 to trump Benavides, who has a best placing of fourth last year.

“I've been in this situation before,” Brabec said. “For the whole two weeks I've been just trying to stay relax, stay comfortable and just be confident, so two days more. I'm gonna do the same thing tomorrow that I've been doing every day; ride dirt bikes and have fun.”

Van Beveren helped Brabec with navigation while fighting with another teammate, Skyler Howes, the entire day for the stage win.

Howes prevailed by 21 seconds for his first career major stage in his eighth Dakar. He was third in 2023 and sixth last year. He's running fifth, 34 minutes off the pace.

Benavides was fourth in the stage and believed the race will be decided on the final 105-kilometer sprint on Saturday.

“I played no strategy like Ricky. I don't care,” Benavides said. “I'm doing what I can to control what I can control.”

Ekström won his third car stage of this Dakar, a special so fast that 12 other drivers were within 10 minutes.

Ford achieved another 1-2-3 stage. Romain Dumas, a three-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours, was a career-best second just over a minute back and Carlos Sainz was third.

Only Toyota's Henk Lategan beat Ekström to a checkpoint but Lategan's podium hopes were wrecked after 140 kilometers when a bearing broke on his rear left wheel. Lategan was second last year and second overall overnight but he plunged out of the top 15, at least.

Loeb moved up to third overall, 10 minutes behind Roma and three minutes ahead of Ekström.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Rider Daniel Sanders competes during the eleventh stage of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Rider Daniel Sanders competes during the eleventh stage of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Driver Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Fabian Lurquin compete during the eleventh stage of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Driver Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Fabian Lurquin compete during the eleventh stage of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Rider Skyler Howes competes during the eleventh stage of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Rider Skyler Howes competes during the eleventh stage of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Driver Henk Lategan, left, and co-driver Brett Cummings repair their car during the eleventh stage of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Driver Henk Lategan, left, and co-driver Brett Cummings repair their car during the eleventh stage of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Driver Nani Roma and co-driver Alex Haro compete during the eleventh stage of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Driver Nani Roma and co-driver Alex Haro compete during the eleventh stage of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Jan.15, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

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