App lets diners keep a 10% bill discount, or give it to food banks

Mogl enables diners to enjoy a ten percent discount on their meal at participating restaurants, which they can either keep or donate to food banks and hunger charities.

Hunger is a real problem, not only in the poorest parts of the world but even in major US cities. In fact, 50 million Americans are meal insecure and one in five kids in the US faces hunger, according to Jon Carder — co-founder and CEO of Mogl, a startup that hopes to do more to stop people going without food. Its new app now enables diners in San Diego to enjoy a ten percent discount on their meal at participating restaurants, which they can either keep or donate to food banks and hunger charities.

The company previously followed the structure of pledging to couple any users USD 20 spend at a Mogl-affiliated restaurant with a meal donated to a food poverty nonprofit. Although Carder says that this model resulted in USD 30 million spent in US restaurants and enabled his team to donate more than 500,000 meals, he believes the new app will be even more effective. Users link their credit or debit card and then each time they dine at a venue partnered with Mogl, they will be notified of a ten percent discount that will be paid back into their account unless they want to give a portion to charity. For each 20 cents that is given up by consumers, food banks receive one meal. Users can track how many meals they’ve helped donate through the app, as well as compete with friends. Restaurants benefit from return custom and revenue, as well as knowing they’re helping their fellow locals to avoid going hungry. The video below offers more information about the app:

Acting as an alternative to initiatives such as Halfsies — which aims to get consumers to support hunger charities by paying full price for half meals — Mogl offers a more attractive proposition to diners and, it believes, a more effective one. The app is free to download on both the App Store and Google Play, and currently serves more than a hundred restaurants in San Diego. Are there other businesses that could add a charitable element to their loyalty schemes?