(September 2, 2023) The United States discards more food than any other country in the world. Every year in United States, approximately 31% (133 billion pounds) of the overall food supply is wasted by consumers and retailers, as per the estimates of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA-ERS).
The wasted food is either dumped in landfills or burned in trash incinerators. This leads to 18% of the US’ total methane emissions that come from landfills, resulting in global warming and impacting food security and resource conservation.
To address this problem in her community, Maryland based Shrusti Amula, a senior at Richard Montgomery High School, founded the NGO, Rise N Shine Foundation. The youth-led initiative aims to tackle the effects of food waste through composting and food recovery programmes, and in the process – avert climate change.
Shrusti Amula
So far, Shrusti has diverted close to 1,00,000 pounds of food waste from incinerators, converting it into compost instead. Her non-profit also runs food recovery programmes to combat hunger amongst the underprivileged. Rise N Shine’s food recovery programme has been adopted by Montgomery County’s public school system and will be running in all 209 schools by June 2024. In the past year, the non-profit has donated approximately 150,000 meals to the food insecure community.
Shrusti has received many awards and recognition, the most recent being named a ‘Woman of Worth 2023’ by L’Oreal Paris.“It is difficult managing school, Rise N Shine’s initiatives, and my other extracurricular activities. The main reason I am able to manage the non-profit is because I am passionate about the work we are doing,” Shrusti tells Global Indian.
L’Oreal’s Woman of Worth
Each year, L’Oreal Paris launches a nationwide search for ten extraordinary non-profit leaders to be named ‘Women of Worth’ honourees. Each honouree not only receives $25,000 to support their charitable cause, but are also provided mentorship from the L’Oréal Paris network and a national platform to tell their stories.
Shrusti is the youngest of the ten honourees of 2023. “With this honour I hope to expand the reach of our programmes and inspire youth nationwide that they too can create change in their communities,” she says.
Making impact
Through Rise N Shine, Shrusti has been meeting many goals – cultivating green habits in students, creating leadership opportunities for them by making them their schools’ volunteers, and helping them become climate change makers of tomorrow.
Her composting programme currently runs in nine schools while three more are in pipeline. Rise N Shine’s food recovery programme is now running in 40 Maryland schools, apart from offices, restaurants, grocery stores and bakeries. It will expand to all 209 schools of the county by the end of 2024.
It started when…
“In 2018, I stumbled upon on the acute problem of food waste and its impact on climate,” Shrusti shares. She extensively researched its impact in her community and found out that it was being overlooked to a great extent.
The youngster presented this problem and the possible solutions at the eCybermission competition – a STEM Competition, backed by the US Army. One of her proposed solutions was to start food waste collection programmes and divert the wasted food to compost facilities.
The teenager was delighted to find herself as one of the top five winners of the competition, and started her pilot project at Clarksburg Elementary School in her community. The school principal and the administrative staff of the school were very supportive of Shrusti’s idea.
In this programme she was able to haul the leftover food from the students’ lunch boxes to make compost, thus diverting the school’s food waste from incinerators and landfills and giving back to the environment through compost. “I learned that it is easy to educate young minds on the harmful effects of food waste and spearhead the behavioural adaption to proper disposal of food waste,” she says.
This learning served as an impetus for further work in the arena. Since then she has partnered with close to a dozen local schools and multiple organisations to make this solution a big success.
From composting to food recovery
After tasting success with her composting programme, Shrusti expanded her initiative towards food recovery in schools and businesses, looking at the amount of uneaten food wasted and the burgeoning problem of food insecurity after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to the success of her pilot initiative, and the potential of her programme to combat hunger amongst the underprivileged, it got adopted by Montgomery County’s public school system, and would be rolled out to all the 209 schools of the county by 2024. Rise N Shine Foundation also partners with companies to redistribute food that would otherwise be wasted to homeless shelters and food banks. In the past year, the non-profit has donated approximately 150,000 meals to the food insecure community.
How does it work?
“Unused food in Montgomery County accounts for nearly 124,000 tons of our solid waste, Our wasted food contributes to greenhouse gas pollution and wastes the land, water, energy and human effort that was used to produce the food” shares Shrusti.
Rise N Shine Foundation collects food from local businesses that would have been otherwise thrown away and provide it to homeless shelters, food pantries and under-served communities, where people are experiencing hunger. “We are playing our part and contributing towards Montgomery County’s recycling goals for reducing food waste,” she remarks.
One of Rise N Shine’s food donation events
Although it’s a youth-led non-profit organisation to promote and motivate kids to do their bit for the environment, Shrusti works with people of all ages and backgrounds.
The non-profit has expanded to a wide array of service campaigns that support causes ranging from hunger and social justice to quality education, civil rights, and youth activism.
Shrusti Amula has participated and contributed to various legislative bills at the school and county level. Outside of school and community activities, she is a trained Indian classical dancer, USA national women’s cricket player, mentor, and a debater. She is also a bronze and silver awardee of Girl Scout.
Rise N Shine’s awards and recognitions:
- Recipient of 2022 Climate & Energy Leadership Award given by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments
- Recipient of Citation from The Maryland General Assembly
- Recipient of Proclamation from The County Executive of Montgomery County, Maryland
Shrusti’s recent awards and recognitions
- ‘Women of Worth’ honouree by L’Oreal Paris
- Riley’s Call for Kindness Award – Grant and Fellowship Winner (2023)
- EPA President’s Environmental Youth Award (PEYA) Winner (2023)
- Governor’s Youth Service Award (2023)
- Women Making History Award (2023) by Montgomery County Commission for Women and Montgomery women
- Points of Light Award Honoree (2023)
- The President’s Volunteer Service Award (Gold) (2022)
- Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Climate and Energy Leadership Awards (2022)
- Points of Light, Inspiration Honour Roll (2022)
Shrusti Amula
