Latest news with #Topanga
Forbes
20-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
4 AI Tools Rescuing Restaurants and Individuals From Inflation
Family, father and kids with selfie in restaurant with smile, care and bonding with food for web ... More blog. Dad, mom and milkshake with African children for profile picture post on social media in diner From fast-casual chains to your fridge at home, artificial intelligence is stepping in where supply chains, labor markets, and budgets are buckling. If you've felt the pinch while ordering takeout or reading your grocery receipt, you're not alone. With inflation lingering, labor costs rising, and potential tariffs threatening imports — 15% of the U.S. food supply is imported, including 32% of fresh vegetables, 55% of fresh fruit, and 94% of seafood — the cost of putting food on the table is surging. Dining out, once a weeknight convenience, now feels like a splurge. Even meal prepping is no longer cheap But behind the scenes, a new kind of intelligence is helping the industry—and consumers—hold the line. It's not another subscription box or budgeting hack. It's AI. From commercial kitchens optimizing waste and labor to smart apps turning your fridge into a precision tool, artificial intelligence is quietly becoming one of the most effective tools in the fight against food inflation. Here are four ways AI is helping restaurants stay open, households spend less, and everyone eat smarter without sacrificing quality—or sanity. When you think about your rising food bills, the complexity behind the scenes of your favorite eateries or the cafeterias that serve thousands daily might not immediately come to mind. Yet, inefficiencies there directly contribute to the prices you pay. Enter Topanga, an advanced kitchen AI platform co-founded by Adam Bailey, an economist and former head of data at Sweetgreen. Topanga is quietly revolutionizing over 430 commercial kitchens and diverse foodservice operations—from bustling fast-casual restaurant chains and large-scale hotel dining halls to critical hospital cafeterias and university meal services. Its core mission is to leverage AI to slash operational costs, particularly food costs, enabling these businesses to thrive without inevitably passing every rising expense onto consumers. 'In this challenging era of margin risk, Topanga's AI gives kitchens within all types of foodservice environments the intelligence and tools to operate far more efficiently and sustainably,' Bailey explains. 'We believe that true sustainability in the food industry is intrinsically linked to smart cost savings. It's AI identifying and eliminating financial drains, especially around food, which is the most direct way to keep menu prices affordable and these essential food businesses alive and serving their communities.' Here's a look at how Topanga's AI-driven approach makes a tangible difference in reducing food-related costs, directly benefiting both the foodservice operators and, ultimately, your wallet: By embedding AI deep into the operational fabric of the foodservice industry, Topanga helps these businesses significantly reduce their primary expense drivers, especially food costs. This not only strengthens the viability of restaurants and other foodservice providers in a tough economic climate but also acts as a crucial buffer against rising prices for consumers. The intelligence Topanga provides is a key strategy in making the entire food ecosystem more resilient and affordable. Moving into your own kitchen, AI-powered meal planning apps like Mealmind are designed to take the stress and guesswork out of grocery shopping and cooking, directly impacting your food budget. You tell Mealmind your dietary preferences, goals (like weight loss or muscle gain), and even your budget, and its AI gets to work. The result? Less food waste, fewer last-minute expensive takeout orders because you have a plan, and a noticeable reduction in your grocery bill. It's like having a personal nutritionist and budget advisor rolled into one. Did you know that a significant portion of food waste occurs in our own homes? Forgotten leftovers, produce wilting in the crisper drawer – it all adds up. Nosh is a food management app that uses AI to help you keep track of what you have, use it before it expires, and ultimately save money. These apps turn your pantry and fridge into a well-organized, cost-effective system, ensuring the food you spend your hard-earned money on actually gets eaten. While its parent company also develops sophisticated AI platforms for retailers, the Too Good To Go consumer app offers a brilliant, simple way to save money while fighting food waste on a local level. The concept is straightforward: restaurants, cafes, bakeries, and grocery stores often have perfectly good surplus food at the end of the day that would otherwise be discarded. This model is a win-win: businesses recoup some cost on food that would be lost, and consumers get a great deal. It's a direct, tangible way AI-facilitated connections are helping people eat well for less. As food costs continue to challenge household budgets, AI is proving to be more than just a buzzword. It's delivering practical, effective solutions that can lead to real savings. Whether by supporting restaurants like Topanga to manage their expenses or by empowering individuals with tools like Mealmind, Nosh, and Too Good To Go, artificial intelligence is reshaping our relationship with food and finance for the better. By embracing these technologies, consumers can gain more control over their spending, reduce waste, and navigate the rising tide of food prices with greater confidence.
Fox News
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
‘Boy Meets World' stars declare the ‘worst' and most ‘idiotic' episode of the series
Several of the "Boy Meets World" cast members seemed to agree on which episode was the worst of the series. On a recent episode of the show's rewatch podcast, "Pod Meets World," Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle discussed the eighth episode of the sixth season, "You're Married, You're Dead," which they collectively dubbed "arguably the worst episode" of the show. In the episode, Cory, played by Ben Savage, goes to a Hooters-style restaurant called Cleaváge to prove that though he's married to Topanga, played by Fishel, he's still one of the guys. But while there, he loses his engagement ring in the process. Strong, who played Cory's best friend Shawn, explained, "This episode felt very weird to me in that it felt like somebody had written a draft of an episode that was very clearly like Topanga is upset that Corey goes to essentially a strip club or Hooters. And then they kind of backed off of that by, like, having Topanga be very understanding." "This ranks up there with arguably the worst episode for me of the series for every reason." "And in the rewrite, it's almost like everything the characters are saying is going against the actual plot, and so it felt kind of forced in a way, and then some of the jokes felt rushed," he continued. "I don't know. Something felt off. It felt like this was a bad tape night for some reason." He also had issues with the fact that much of the cast wasn't in the episode much, but admitted portions were "pretty funny" and praised his co-star Savage. But as an episode, "it just didn't land in certain parts for me." Friedle, who played Cory's older brother Eric, had even harsher criticism. "This ranks up there with arguably the worst episode for me of the series for every reason," he said. "The entire episode I thought was idiotic," he said, adding that though people think he's being harsh, "I know TV. This was not it. This was a bad episode of television all the way around. That's what I think about this episode." Fishel agreed with her co-stars, mentioning she feels like maybe they weren't in it as much because they could sense it was bad. She also took issue with her character's reaction to everything, saying, "And I am furious that they put the words, 'Well, as long as there's women willing to dance like that, there will be men to see them' in Topanga's mouth. How dare you? How dare you?" Fishel felt it went very much against Topanga's character, adding, "If that's a point you want to get in there, you better find someone else," further explaining she didn't like that Topanga and Angela, (Trina McGee) bad-mouthed the female dancers in the episode. "Boy Meets World" aired on ABC for seven seasons, from 1993 to 2000.
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Danielle Fishel and Rider Strong Recall Their Awkward 'Boy Meets World' Kiss: ‘Maybe the Worst Episode of Television'
If you were traumatized by Topanga and Shawn kissing on Boy Meets World, you are not alone. On the March 27 episode of Pod Meets World, former Boy Meets World stars and current podcast co-hosts Danielle Fishel, (who played Topanga) , Rider Strong (Shawn) and Will Friedle (Eric) recapped the sixth episode from season 6 titled "Hogs & Kisses." In the BMW episode, Topanga and Shawn kiss for basically no reason, according to the stars of the show. "This episode is maybe the worst episode of television I've ever seen ever in my life," Fishel, 43, said on the rewatch podcast. 'It's terrible. There's not one redeeming quality other than Ben [Savage].' 'It makes no sense. It's stupid, and it is not funny,' she continued. In the 1998 episode of the series, the characters film a promotional film for the fictional Pennbrook University. In the video, Topanga and Shawn share a kiss, causing Corey (Savage) to worry that something is going on between the two friends romantically. Related: Rider Strong Says It Actually Did Make Sense for Cory and Topanga to Get Married at 18 on Boy Meets World On the podcast, Fishel added that this was the episode that she knew she was "done" with the show. "I checked my soul out of my body," she said. Strong, 45, recalled that he didn't even remember doing the episode until Fishel brought it up. Friedle, 48, exclaimed that it was "one of the worst TV kisses" he had ever seen, mostly because, as the podcast hosts recalled, the smooch hadn't even been rehearsed. "You just put your lips together," Friedle said with a laugh. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories."Yeah, I don't remember making out all week," Fishel recalled. Strong admitted that there was maybe something to the random kiss between two platonic friends, if only because it falls into the canon of Boy Meets World so well. He said on the podcast, "I feel like there's a 300 or 400 page book, like, a Ph.D thesis to be written about the magic of kissing on Boy Meets World, like the how and all the nuances. Right?" Read the original article on People
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Topanga Raises $8M to Bring AI-Powered Efficiency to Foodservice's $27B Packaging and Waste Problem
LOS ANGELES, CA / / March 26, 2025 / America's foodservice operations are running on outdated infrastructure, losing billions in food waste and single-use packaging costs each year. Topanga, the AI-powered kitchen intelligence platform, is fixing the problem at the source-not with more recycling bins, but with automation that eliminates waste and unlocks margin. Now, backed by an $8 million Series A funding round led by Blue Bear Capital, with participation from Struck Capital, Amasia, and Wonder Ventures, Topanga is scaling its platform across enterprise foodservices in colleges and universities, healthcare, and hospitality settings. Eliminating food and packaging waste at the kitchen level is one of the fastest, most scalable ways to lower operating costs, drive down resource intensity, and build a food system that's both profitable and sustainable. Tackling Foodservice's Hidden Costs For decades, waste has been written off as the cost of doing business. But between packaging and overproduction, U.S. foodservice operators are losing more than $27 billion annually. Legacy systems make it impossible to course-correct in real time-so inefficiencies compound, and margins shrink. Topanga is changing that with real-time automation designed specifically for modern foodservice teams. What Topanga Offers ReusePass: A tech-powered reusable packaging system with a 99% return rate, integrated with Grubhub and used by major players like Aramark, Sodexo, and Compass Group. StreamLine: An AI-driven smart scale that automatically measures food waste and helps kitchens reduce overproduction by 70%-saving up to $78,000 per kitchen location each year. "Kitchens don't have time for more dashboards-they need automation that actually saves money and reduces labor," said Page Schult, CEO and Co-founder of Topanga. "We built Topanga to make waste reduction effortless, turning what used to be a sunk cost into a strategic advantage." Why Investors Are Backing Topanga "Topanga is addressing a critical and often underappreciated driver of both environmental impact and operational inefficiency: waste in commercial kitchens. Their enterprise platform delivers measurable sustainability outcomes alongside meaningful cost savings, aligning with the growing demand for solutions that are both environmentally and economically compelling. We are proud to support Topanga as they scale their technology and expand their impact across the food service industry," said Vaughn Blake, Partner, Blue Bear Capital. What's Next With this new funding, Topanga will: Launch and scale StreamLine across enterprise foodservice operations. Expand ReusePass into senior living, healthcare, and hospitality environments. Grow its engineering, design, biz dev, and client success teams to meet rising demand. About Topanga Topanga is a kitchen intelligence platform that helps foodservice teams waste less, save more, and operate more efficiently-with real-time automation, not more admin. From AI-powered packaging returns to smart food waste reduction, Topanga empowers teams to cut costs and boost sustainability without compromising performance. About Blue Bear Capital Blue Bear is a venture capital and early growth equity firm driving the expansion of digital technologies and machine intelligence into multibillion-dollar verticals across the energy, infrastructure, and climate industries. The team comes from leading energy private equity firms and features technology expertise from the tech startup world alongside operational leadership from large-scale technology developers. Blue Bear's portfolio covers operational AI, IoT, and cybersecurity technologies, all deployed with enterprise customers to drive connectivity and intelligence across the world's most critical Media ContactLauren Wallack-EstesOutlier Partnerslauren@ SOURCE: Lauren Wallack-Estes View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire Sign in to access your portfolio
Los Angeles Times
13-03-2025
- Science
- Los Angeles Times
What will it take for Palisades trails to recover? Here's a place to find answers — and hope
Reporting on the 2018 Woolsey fire remains vivid in my mind. I remember observing its bright orange glow from outside the gates of the shuttered Santa Susana Field Laboratory, its starting point. From there I drove to the impromptu command post, a mostly empty fire station where no one could give me clear information about the plan to fight the blaze. I spent the following days reporting from the blackened landscape in Bell Canyon, Malibu and Calabasas. It's been just over six years since I'd covered what was, until January, the largest and most destructive wildfire in L.A. County modern history. But in recent months the Woolsey fire has been back on my mind — this time as a test case for ecological recovery. Both the Woolsey and recent Palisades fires burned through the Santa Monica Mountains in ecologically similar areas. I hoped by visiting an area burned in the Woolsey fire, I could glean perspective for what we can expect over the next few years within the Palisades fire burn scar. (Loyal Wilders might remember that in January I investigated the ecological rehabilitation ahead for the area affected by the Eaton fire, which you can read here.) To get answers, I met up with Matthew Wells, a straight-shooting restoration biologist who has worked in the Santa Monica Mountains for the past six years. He gave me hope about how land can recover if we are willing to put in the work. This past week, Wells and I hiked through Cheeseboro Canyon, an area just east of Agoura Hills that burned in the Woolsey fire in 2018 (and the Topanga fire in 2005). I asked him to show me how the land has and hasn't recovered since the blaze. Wells knows this land well. He first worked in the area shortly after the Woolsey fire when he was hired to help study the fire's damage to the region. Wells now works for the Santa Monica Mountains Fund, a nonprofit founded in 1988 whose efforts are focused on protecting the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. At the fund, Wells oversees planting native trees, shrubs and other plants, and how to best rid the mountains of invasive plants, including quick-burning invasives like dried-out black mustard. Wells and I started our hike walking past rolling green hills. He immediately explained that, come summer, this bucolic landscape will resemble massive heaps of oversized russet potatoes. Much of the green is from invasive weeds, including wild oats, thistle and mustard planted by ranchers who worked this land for more than 150 years. But cattle overgrazed the area, killing out native plants and trees. Today these fast-growing non-native plants suck up all the nutrients and block the sun from reaching native plants. And when they dry out, they burn quickly. Wells and other workers mow the area several times a year to kill these intruders. Ideally, they will use the Santa Monica Mountains Fund's seed farm and other resources to replace the undesired plants with lupines, poppies and other local perennials. Wouldn't that be gorgeous? As we continued walking, Wells pointed to small stands of large old oak trees. Before European colonizers arrived, the area would have been covered in valley oaks and coast live oaks. Ranchers left these small groups of trees to give their cattle shady spots to rest but cleared out much of the land to create pastures. Plus, the cattle would have eaten small saplings. 'One could use their imagination,' Wells said. 'If you were in this canyon prior to ranching and all these devastating fires, there should be more oaks here, and it should be a more densely oak woodland.' The Santa Monica Mountains Fund and other organizations have spent years planting thousands of native trees in this region. As we were walking, Wells showed me dozens of baby trees individually planted in milk and juice cartons to easily mark their location. (And yes, 'baby trees' is definitely the scientific term.) It was thrilling to peek inside a carton and see a tiny oak. Someday, I will return and say in my most grandfatherly tone, 'I remember when you were only yay high!' Not all trees are thriving, though. The valley oaks, Wells said, do not tolerate drought as well as the coast live oaks. As we walked, I repeatedly pointed and asked, 'Is that tree dead?' It was often not a straightforward answer. A fire had burned inside the trunk of one large oak I asked about. 'It's hard to say how long it's got,' Wells said. 'It could last another 100 years. It could last two years. It could last two months. It could fall while we're standing here.' (Thankfully reader, it did not.) After a wildfire, self-appointed experts often post on social media about how fire benefits our landscape. I wanted to hear Wells' take on that, given that several of the oaks we looked at survived two major fires in the past 20 years. Wells said there's a significant difference between the impact of the Topanga, Woolsey and Palisades fires — wind-driven fires fed by 100-mph gusts in bone-dry humidity — and a prescribed burn that officials carry out under specific conditions to reduce an area's fuel load. 'Fire is not inherently bad if it's the right setting,' Wells said. 'But we're not in the Sierra Nevada and in mixed conifer. We're in Southern California, and we're lighting things on fire ... in this case in January, and the plants are drought stressed after a long summer, and it's hot.' Deeper in the canyon, Wells got a bit more animated. Here, the organization has planted purple needle grass, wild rose, sage, giant wild rye and creeping rye. Around the creek beds, they planted willows. He pointed to 2 acres where workers and volunteers planted golden currant, which was already blooming. It will feed native bees, which need a more consistent food source than invasives provide. 'It's small, but that's how you do it. You piece it together. You do a little bit at a time,' he said. We walked deeper into the canyon, and Wells showed me how stark the differences were from the beginning of our trek. On one hillside, green soon-dead non-native grasses. But on the other side, lush purple sage rolling up the hillside. If volunteers and organizations put in similar work for oak woodlands burned in the Palisades, 'then you could expect similar results,' he said. I asked Wells how soon we need to start that work. Shortly after the Eaton and Palisades fires were contained, volunteer efforts blossomed to clean up the burn areas. Then, debate broke out over the right approach. And I'm sorry to say, Wells agreed there is no one right approach. 'People want a sound bite, like 'Two weeks after is the best time to do X,' but in reality, nature is complicated,' Wells said. 'People are like 'Rocket science is really hard.' Well, this is harder. The variables are so inconsistent.' But one thing that Wells' group and others can do right now is yank up weeds. Arundo donax, or giant reed, is a 'really terrible, terrible weed' choking out native plants in creek and river beds in the Santa Monica Mountains, he said. 'Right now is a good time to go in and start removing the Arundo because a lot of the vegetation is cleared out,' he said, adding it'd be beneficial to remove other weeds like tree tobacco and castor bean too, especially as the area gets more rain and more weeds crop up. Wells' dream and plan is to recover these hills and canyon by returning them to coastal sage scrub and oak woodlands. His optimism for this land is the opposite of blind faith. His hope is rooted in action. Like anyone who loves our local public lands, Wells can spiral like the rest of us about climate change and how it's worsening heat in Southern California. But he focuses on what he can control, on the problems he can fix. 'It's easy to get lost in those big-picture things, but I like to think at some point, we'll solve those issues as a species,' Wells said. 'You know what I can do? I can plant trees right now so that if we do solve that problem, then this area is looking better. You can't give up hope just for the sake of giving up hope. That apathy is not going to get you anywhere in life. This is just an area that needs to get fixed.' Want to be a part of that fixing? You can volunteer to plant trees and restore land with the Santa Monica Mountains Fund and volunteer to help replant in a burned area of the Eaton fire in April. 1. Restore wildland to its glory in GlendaleThe Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy will host a volunteer workday from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday at its Sunshine Preserve in Glendale. This 3.5-acre hilly landscape was donated to the conservancy in 2020 and serves as an important passageway for wildlife, including mountain lions P-41 and Nikita. Volunteers will remove invasive weeds to help foster growth of native plants. Participants are encouraged to bring shovels, hand pruners and trowels if they have them. Volunteers should bring work gloves and water, and wear sturdy shoes. Sign up at 2. Get lost in learning in Fountain ValleyWant to feel more confident about using a compass and topography map? Want to know what a topography map is? Sports Basement Orange County will host a free class from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at its Fountain Valley location (10800 Kalama River Ave.). Participants will learn how to read topo maps and how to effectively use a compass. The course will also include how to take bearings and practice triangulation. Participants will receive a gear discount. Register at 3. Bike along new green space in El MonteActiveSGV will host a free tour and 15.8-mile bike ride from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday in El Monte to educate riders about the Merced Avenue Greenway project. The project aims to remove asphalt, build green spaces and capture more stormwater, all while reducing urban heat and creating safer paths for pedestrians and cyclists. Saturday's ride will start at the Jeff Seymour Family Center (10900 Mulhall St. in El Monte) and follow the lush San Gabriel River Bike Path to the Whittier Narrows Recreational Area. Register at Just under a two-hour drive northwest from L.A., the Ojai Valley offers outdoors lovers an opportunity to unwind and reconnect with the world around them. Want to know where to go specifically for a soul reset? Times staff writer Deborah Netburn outlines six spiritual spots in Ojai, including Meditation Mount, where you take the nature trail and appreciate 'awe-inspiring views and one of the largest wind chimes I've ever seen,' she writes. Or, for a more rugged experience, visit Meher Mount, a 173-acre expanse where the property's caretaker Ray Johnston told Netburn that people come to 'feel the spiritual energy and hike.' Personally, I need more of that as every day of 2025 passes. Happy adventuring, Seeing a California condor in the wild is definitely on my hiking bingo card. But I hadn't realized how ill-prepared I was to identify one until I saw the Ventura Land Trust's recent post about how to differentiate a California condor from a turkey vulture. Turns out, if the large bird above you has a white triangle across its upper body resembling Texas longhorn antlers, that's a condor. If its underside wings are grayish across its lower body, that's probably a turkey vulture. Fun fact: When turkey vultures are hot, they'll poop on their feet to cool off. They'll also vomit on anything (or anyone) that threatens them. That's some great boundary setting! For more insider tips on Southern California's beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.
