Branded Hospitality Spotlights Copia's Food Donation Platform Helping Operators Turn Surplus Into Impact

Portfolio company Copia helps hospitality operators redirect surplus food to communities rather than landfills, turning cost center into competitive advantage.

NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES, August 4, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Branded Hospitality, a foodservice growth platform spanning ventures, advisory solutions and media, is highlighting the work of portfolio company Copia, a donation platform helping restaurants and hospitality operators redirect surplus food to nonprofits instead of landfills.

Food waste remains one of the hospitality industry's most persistent and costly operational challenges. Restaurants and hospitality businesses routinely pay to haul surplus food to landfills, absorbing the cost of the food itself along with the cost of disposal, all while nearby communities face food insecurity. Copia was built to close that gap by making donation as simple, and often less expensive, than throwing food away.

Copia functions as a donation engine for hospitality businesses. Operators schedule a pickup for surplus food in a few minutes, the platform matches it to a local nonprofit, a driver is dispatched, and the operator receives an audit-proof donation receipt along with a tax dashboard for recordkeeping. The platform is already in use by operators including The Cheesecake Factory, Ritz-Carlton and 1 Hotels.

"Most operators are living with a status quo where they pay a hauler to cart their surplus to a landfill, pay to destroy good food, absorb the loss, and get nothing back," said Jimmy Frischling, co-founder of Branded Hospitality and a longtime advocate for operator-first technology in the hospitality space. "Copia flips that. It turns a cost center into a donation that benefits your P&L, your community and your brand, all at once."

The case for donation over disposal extends beyond goodwill. Federal tax incentives allow businesses to deduct more than the cost of donated food, and the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act shields good-faith donors from liability, addressing two of the most common hesitations operators cite before adopting a donation program. Paired with reduced hauling costs, lower emissions, and a direct, visible benefit to the surrounding community, donation increasingly functions less like a sustainability gesture and more like a straightforward operational upgrade, one that touches an operator's finances, environmental footprint, workforce culture and neighborhood relationships at the same time.

Frischling has been a vocal advocate for solving industry problems through private-sector innovation rather than waiting on top-down mandates, and views Copia as a clear example of that approach in practice: a solution that already exists, already works, and is available to operators today.

About Branded Hospitality

Branded Hospitality is a New York-based hospitality media and investment platform dedicated to accelerating innovation across the restaurant and foodservice industry. Through The Hospitality Hangout podcast, strategic advisory work, and an extensive network of operators, investors, and technology leaders, Branded serves as a connector and amplifier for the people and companies driving the future of hospitality. Learn more at brandedstrategic.com.

Julie Zucker
Branded Hospitality
julie@brandedstrategic.com
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