Glen Head resident and Jericho student Arjun Bindra saw lunchtime food being wasted at his school and decided to do something about it.
“I saw food being wasted so much and it was basically the norm,” said Bindra.
Bindra, a senior at Jericho Senior High School, was one of five students recently awarded the Nobel Good Earth Sustainability Scholarship by the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS). He was recognized for creating an app, called Evergreen, that gives students the ability to decrease the amount of food that goes to waste within schools.
“Coming from a family of farmers, the importance of food was always stressed to me,” he said. “Wherever I was, I was always taught never to waste food.”
His upbringing as well as his frustrations related to the amount of food that schools waste inspired him to create the app. Students can anonymously tell the app what they had for lunch, and what parts of the lunch they did not consume. Additionally, they can also learn about the lunches themselves. The app also has activity ideas that people within the school can take part in to conserve food.
“I wanted to have students know more about their agricultural menus while also having better menus and wasting less too,” he said.
Bindra said that he had help from his brother and a friend in creating the app. They entered the app in Intuit’s “Social Innovation Challenge,” where they were named international finalists. He was encouraged by friends who had already graduated to apply for scholarships through organizations such as NSHSS. As a result of the recognition, he was able to hear from mentors from Cornell and SUNY.
“We’ve basically used the app to decide … what parts of the app should be used by students, and what parts of the app should be used by administrators,” said Bindra.
He explained that the app itself has not actually been implemented just yet. However, it has gone through testing, and he has received customer feedback.
“They said it has high potential for other schools, potentially colleges too,” he said.
Bindra said there is a possibility the app could launch as soon as next year in high schools and colleges. He also plans on making the app free to download, as he has a bigger picture in mind than making money.
“We’re not trying to make this as something profitable for us,” he said. “We’re just trying to help schools.”
Bindra credits the support system from the community at Jericho Senior High School, as well as his family in helping him along his journey. At the moment, he is unsure where he wants to attend college, but he knows what he wants to go to college for.
“I definitely know I want to study environmental systems,” said Bindra. “I’m really passionate about it and I think it’s the future. If youth like me doesn’t tackle it right now, there’s going to be a lot of consequences in the future that we shouldn’t have.”
His career aspirations also echo those same passions.
“I want to maximize food systems because we’re having a growing world, and we’re not going to be able to feed everyone if we don’t change the system,” he added. “But I want to feed the growing world while also being sustainable.”
