Chácara Foods - Hult Prize 2016 Finalists. A Discussion on National Food Waste

This post is all about humble brags so if you don’t want to hear it then you may leave at this time =].

Today was a HUUUGE day in the Shah house. As you all know, I have two adorable, smart and ambitious brothers. Back in October while I was finalizing travel plans, David (the older one) was finalizing an application to compete for the Hult Prize. The Hult Prize is an accelerator for start-ups aimed at solving a global issue. The challenge for 2016, posed by Bill Clinton, was “can we build sustainable, scalable and fast-growing social enterprises that double the income of 10 million people residing in crowded urban spaces, by better connecting people, goods, services and capital?” David, along with a team of three other past and present Rutgers students dreamed up a company that tackled the issues we battle regarding food waste, pinpointing the losses of BILLIONS of TONS of fresh fruits and veg yearly. With a stat of 33% of all food produced for human consumption going to waste it was a no brainer to them that we should be doing more to reduce the waste of unwanted produce. Their mission was simple:

-Build sustainable relationships with local farmers

-Preserve nutritious fruits and vegetables for urban communities

-Empower aspiring entrepreneurs

If you know me then you know that one of my BIGGEST pet peeves is food waste. I practically lick my plate clean after meals because I have seen slums in Brasil, I have seen malnourished children in various countries running around with their ribs sticking out because they don’t have the access nor the opportunity to eat what we do. I know we may not see it firsthand but according to Feeding America in the US today, 15 million children face hunger. That’s 1 in 5 going to school with a pit in his/her stomach because he or she didn’t get breakfast. I’m talking about urban slums in OUR OWN COUNTRY. Of course this is directly correlated to the US statistics on poverty (did you know 46.7 million Americans, or 15% of our country, lived in poverty in 2014?) but in addition to this, it also has a lot to do with food waste and the fact that these families flat out have a really difficult time getting access to nutritious fruit and veg.

In our house my whole family loves to cook and more importantly, to eat. We value the food that we have on our plates and because of this I was extremely proud of Dave in addressing this issue.

The boys’ company, Chácara Foods, aimed to buy local, imperfect produce and dry it thus extending their shelf lives from what was one week to an entire year. This model provides farmers with income they would have never earned, empowers local entrepreneurs to start profitable, low-risk businesses and in the end preserves over 89,526,124 pounds of food yearly. With this model, the boys competed on campus and bypassed tens of thousands of applicants to secure a spot at the Regional Finals. There were five locations for Regional Finals including Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai and Shanghai-the boys went to Boston. On the day of competition hundreds of teams pitched starting from 8am. After all had the opportunity to speak, six teams were called up to pitch again one-by-one. The event, although private, was streamed live and I was able to tune in from my post at the outdoors camp in Malaysia. The event was also covered by a live twitter feed which I thought was great. We were in high anticipation to hear the six finalists but were getting really nervous after four groups had gotten called up to re-pitch, none of which were David’s. Then, the craziest thing happened. The 5th team was announced but instead of their slide deck appearing on the screen, the Chácara Foods deck appeared. My stream was a tag laggy so our family messenger group and Kirk were all freaking out and I didn’t know what was going on until I saw it for myself. There was major hyperventilating going on my part at that moment. IT rectified the deck and the 5th team pitched but we were all buzzing. How could I possibly concentrate? There were so many things running around in my head. Finally, the final team was called up and lo, Chácara Foods made it to the finals! Seeing David speak made me cry. I actually am tearing up just writing this. That boy is amazing. Speaking to his personality, if anyone has charisma it’s this kid. He is the epitome of a kind heart. When I grow up I want to be just like him. Seriously. I was a very proud sister and I may or may not have freaked out in the camp office while they were pitching.

After they finished there was an hour of deliberation before the one winner was announced. Although David and his team did not win overall they were in the top 30 teams chosen out of 25,000 teams worldwide. What an incredible achievement!

Without the seed money I am unsure whether David and team will continue to move forward with Chácara Foods as a side project but if they were correct in saying they could affect 10 million people for the better within six years I truly believe it would be an incredible feat for themselves and would set a great precedent for future generations to be more conscious about food waste.

I urge those of you who are interested in social entrepreneurship to think about what we can do to make the world we live in a better place for now and for the future. These boys were able to create a start-up while finishing up senior year, taking exams, leading other organizations, having full-time jobs, etc. It is very possible to make a difference in this world if you have the drive. I am so proud of Dave and his team for making a statement and bringing more light to this ongoing issue.

My brag is over now. If you’d like to learn more about the hult prize you can read more about it here, http://www.hultprize.org/en/compete/2016-prize/2016-challenge/. If you like David’s idea and would like to ask him questions or anything like that you can contact him here, https://www.facebook.com/D.K.S95?pnref=story.

DO GREAT THINGS!

Much love,

Cas

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