Reducing Food Waste in Schools: Transforming Cafeterias through Community-Driven and Grassroots Initiatives

Advika Agarwal is a current first-year undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins University studying international relations and neuroscience. As co-founder of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Compostology Corp. in 2020 with her peer Angelina Xu, a county and state student government leader, and a Rotary delegate to the UN Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai, Advika has worked over 5 years on food waste diversion, water equity, and environmental education, resulting in the enactment of new local environmental policies and a coalition of partnerships on food waste action spanning over 10 countries. Advika welcomes anyone interested in getting involved to contact her at advika.agarw@gmail.com.

Shrusti Amula, a freshman studying Science, Technology, and International Affairs at Georgetown University, is an accomplished environmental activist and a community leader. As the founder of the national award-winning youth-led non-profit Rise N Shine Foundation, she has implemented food recovery programs in 50 schools and composting programs in 13 schools across Montgomery County, Maryland with plans to expand to all 214 district schools. Rise N Shine's main goals are to divert food waste from landfills to compost facilities to reduce greenhouse gases and rescue surplus food from businesses to feed vulnerable community members experiencing food insecurity. Outside of schools, Rise N Shine rescues surplus food daily from grocery stores and restaurants, supporting programs like the food pantry Shrusti organizes each month for formerly homeless individuals. Her community food recovery efforts have been valued at $450,000. She is committed to fighting for systemic change to make a lasting impact. As the co-founder of the Montgomery County Student Climate Action Council (SCAC), she worked to advance sustainability initiatives and create a greener school system by holding MCPS accountable for its climate goals. And, as advocacy remains pivotal for systemic change, Shrusti has collaborated with County and State legislators on policies related to food waste diversion, environmental education, financial, literacy requirements, and increasing mental health support. Embodying the role of a "solutionist," Shrusti transforms visionary ideas into tangible community improvements, establishing herself as a rising leader in environmental sustainability and social advocacy.

Tara Happy is an experienced Environmental Science teacher at Hollis Primary School in southern New Hampshire, educating students from kindergarten through third grade. With over 11 years of experience in outdoor education, she has served as the Education Director at a local nature center before transitioning to public school teaching. She holds certifications in both elementary and special education and has a Master's degree in Teaching and Curriculum. Passionate about sustainability, she founded and runs a food waste diversion program at her school, which diverts food waste and donates unused food to surrounding communities. In recognition of her dedication to environmental education, she was honored as the NHEE Environmental Educator of the Year in 2022 and received the prestigious Presidential Innovation Environmental Award in 2024.

Susanne’s career as an entrepreneurial business executive saw her successfully creating, launching, and operating multi-million-dollar consumer products brands and businesses with Fortune 100 companies as well as lean start-ups.

Coming to academia as the Executive-in-Residence at the Maine Business School (MBS), Susanne utilized her business management and marketing experience to bring the “real-world” into MBS courses and projects. Key accomplishments include innovative initiatives like the Maine Business School Speaker Series: “Thriving Under Thirty”, the UMaine/MBS experiential learning, “Corporate Classroom” held at Hannaford corporate offices, and “live” case studies with Bangor Savings, JC Penney, and more.

Susanne joined the Mitchell Center as a Faculty Fellow in Fall 2020 as part of the Mitchell Center’s Materials Management team. Within that transdisciplinary group, Susanne leads a student/faculty team working directly with state, business, and community stakeholders as well as national and global food waste experts like ReFED and Harvard Food Law & Policy to develop solutions to end food waste in Maine. Each year, the students implement a number of stakeholder-driven pilots to help Maine communities and organizations to build a sustainable, waste-free, circular food system.

Joe Richardson has been focused on solid waste diversion programs since he served on the What’s Next Steering Committee in Frederick County in 2016. Working with remarkable students and teachers, Lunch Out of Landfills started in 2018 at Urbana High School and Clarksburg Elementary school in Maryland. As a Rotarian, Joe secured funding from Local Rotary and with a matching district grant expanded to 14 schools in 2020. When schools reopened, Joe worked with the student-led Coalition to Reimagine School Waste to oversee the implementation of compost and waste diversion programs in 36 schools in 2022 diverting over 80% of school waste from Cafeterias. As a member of the Environmental and Sustainable Rotary Action Group (ESRAG), Joe is working with Rotary Clubs and schools in Maine, New Hampshire, Idaho, Utah, Hawaii, New York, California, and Melbourne, Australia.