If you’ve ever wandered up to our booth at The Grand Market near the end of the morning and asked what we still have left — you already understand the problem we were trying to solve.
Baking is not an exact science. Even when you plan carefully, you end up with more than you sell. And for a long time, the answer to that problem was: eat it ourselves, give it away to neighbors, or let it go to waste. None of those felt like a real solution.
So earlier this year, we started looking for a better one. And we found it in Too Good To Go.
What Is Too Good To Go?
Too Good To Go is a certified B Corp social impact company with a simple but powerful idea: connect people who want good food with businesses that have surplus they’d otherwise have to throw away — and do it at a price that works for everyone.
Founded in Copenhagen in 2015, the company has grown into the world’s largest marketplace for surplus food. They now have over 120 million registered users and 180,000 active business partners across 21 countries in Europe and North America. To date, they’ve helped save more than 500 million meals from going to waste — the equivalent of over 1.3 million tons of CO₂ emissions avoided.
That’s not a small thing. Food waste is one of the most significant contributors to climate change — and it’s one of the most solvable ones. According to Project Drawdown, reducing food waste is actually the single most impactful action we can take to help limit global temperature rise. Too Good To Go is turning that research into real-world action, one Surprise Bag at a time.
Their model is what they call a “win-win-win” — good for people, good for businesses, and good for the planet. Customers get quality food at a great value. Businesses recover costs on food that would otherwise be lost. And the environment wins because perfectly good food doesn’t end up in a landfill.
It aligned exactly with the way we think about baking at Aaron’s Vegan Bakery.
Why This Felt Right
We’re a bake-to-order bakery by design. Custom cakes, cupcakes, and cookie orders are made specifically for the person who ordered them — there’s no guessing, no surplus, no waste in that part of what we do.
But the farmers market is different. When we pack up for The Grand Market on the first Saturday of each month, we’re making our best estimate of what we’ll sell. And sometimes we get it right. Sometimes we have a little extra at the end.
That leftover food deserves better than the trash. The ingredients that went into it — the soy milk, the plant-based butter, the flour, the time — all of it represents something real. Throwing it away has always felt like a failure, even when it was unavoidable.
Too Good To Go gives those final items a second chance. It means someone gets to take home something delicious at a reduced price, we recover a little of our cost, and nothing goes to waste. Everybody wins.
And honestly, it just fits with everything our vegan bakery is already about. We’re a 100% plant-based bakery because we believe in making choices that are better for animals and for the planet. Reducing food waste is part of that same commitment. Partnering with Too Good To Go was a natural next step.
How It Works at Our Market Booth
Starting June 6th, you’ll be able to reserve an Aaron’s Vegan Bakery Surprise Bag through the Too Good To Go app.
Here’s how it works:
- Download the Too Good To Go app on your phone (available on iOS and Android — it’s free).
- Search for Aaron’s Vegan Bakery and reserve your Surprise Bag before it sells out. Bags are released in limited quantities, so early reservations are a good idea.
- Come find us at The Grand Market in Surprise on the first Saturday of the month. Pickup happens during the last 30 minutes of the market — the pickup window will be listed in the app when you reserve.
- Show your reservation to pick up your bag. Inside you’ll find a curated selection of whatever we have left from the day — it’s a surprise by design, but it’s always 100% vegan and always made fresh that morning.
The Surprise Bag is a great option if you’ve been curious about Aaron’s Vegan Bakery but haven’t had a chance to order yet, or if you love showing up to the market but sometimes miss us before we sell out.
A Few Things Worth Knowing
Bags are available in limited quantities — we’ll only list what we actually have left as the market winds down, so this isn’t a guarantee of availability at every market. Some days we’ll have bags available; some days we’ll sell out before the pickup window. Follow us on Instagram or Facebook to get a heads-up when bags go live.
The contents are a surprise — that’s kind of the whole point. You might get cookies, brownies, a muffin, a cupcake, or a combination. What you won’t get is something we’re not proud of. If it’s in the bag, it was made that morning and we’d eat it ourselves.
This is market-only for now — Too Good To Go pickup is only available at The Grand Market. It doesn’t apply to pre-orders, custom cakes, or shipping orders, which are all made to order with zero waste by design.
One Small Step in the Right Direction
We’re a small operation. One baker, one oven, one market table. We’re not going to solve food waste by ourselves.
But we do believe that small choices add up — that every business deciding to do things a little more thoughtfully moves the needle. Partnering with Too Good To Go is one of the ways we’re trying to put our values into practice, not just talk about them.
If you’ve been looking for a reason to download the app, consider this your sign. We’d love to see you at the market — and if you can’t make it until the end, now there’s a way to still take something home.
— Aaron
Download the Too Good To Go app at toogoodtogo.com or search “Too Good To Go” in the App Store or Google Play. Find us at The Grand Market in Cave Creek, AZ — first Saturday of every month.
Want to place a full order? Browse our menu and order online at aarons-vegan-bakery.square.site.