My co-founder, Julia Weckstein, and I have created a venture project that will eliminate a root cause of hunger: food waste. The project involves using underutilized school cafeterias to produce meals for the homeless community in D.C. and the surrounding areas. The program will take donated food from local businesses and cafeterias, such as Starbucks, Chipotle, Giant, and Safeway, and gather it in school cafeterias where it will be made into prepared meals by student volunteers. Both of our schools require community service hours to graduate and our venture will provide students at N.C.S. and Montgomery Blair with accessible community service hours after school while also developing their leadership skills and raising their awareness about food waste. After the students transform the donated food into healthy prepared meals, they will distribute the meals through either local churches and synagogues or through D.C. Central Kitchen’s existing distribution network. Our solution to the issue of hunger among the homeless population in D.C. is unique because it benefits multiple aspects of our community. On a smaller scale, the program impacts the daily lives of the students involved in the program by raising their awareness about sustainable eating habits and developing their leadership skills so they can make a difference in their community. On a larger scale, our venture feeds the hungry in our community and eliminates food waste.

Our mission statement:
To feed the hungry in the D.C. area, eliminate local food waste, and provide high school students with leadership opportunities to raise their awareness about sustainable food habits.