Contributing to a better world
A Student Activist, Solutionist, Non-profit founder, National K-12 Food Rescue Student Leader, and speaker are some of the traits that make Shrusti Amula stand different from other children of her age. At 12 years of age, she invented 2 IoT devices leading her to win eCYBERMISSION, a STEM competition and receive an Army education outreach program STEM-in-Action $5000 grant, enabling her to implement promising projects in the community.
Encouraging the Youth
Shrusti believes in bringing the youth’s voices to the forefront regarding the sustainability conversation for urban development. Today’s decisions will impact making a better world tomorrow hence youth awareness and participation is a must. She created awareness for the need and benefits of the food composite programs and helped in implementing them at various schools. She lobbied with legislators, organized conferences, and revitalized trails in various areas to bring an impact on society.
She wants to inspire the children, to explore their unlimited possibilities to start a sustainability project, as anything is possible in a system that supports and champions sustainability. The children must not consider themselves too young and naive to contribute to saving the planet Earth and work on sustainability projects in the community.
Rise N Shine foundationShrusti’s interest in solving community issues at grass-root level has led her to create an award-winning, youth-led non-profit organization of 35,000 students, administrators, and officials. In 2019, she founded Rise N Shine Foundation dedicated to reducing food waste through composting and food recovery programs. Her nonprofit runs food recovery and composting programs in Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland’s largest school district, and its surrounding community.
Shrusti’s school food recovery program collects students’ uneaten, unopened food that would otherwise be thrown out – nearly 9,000 items each month – and makes it available to students in need, especially those who are food shy and food insecure. The program currently operates at 45 schools and is slated for all 209 district schools within a year. Shrusti and her team also support 12 schools in composting their food waste, diverting approximately 1,500 pounds of food per school each month from the incinerator. Compost Ambassadors oversee operations at each school and help students adopt green habits. She Spearheaded food waste composting and food recovery programs, catalyzing nationwide change in fighting climate change and food insecurity. This empowered a new generation of change-makers at each school to be their own climate leader by expanding her school programs across Maryland.
Her volunteer-based organization also recovers unsold good food from local businesses (that may have landed in waste bins) and provides it to homeless shelters, food pantries and underserved communities, where people are experiencing hunger. This contributes to reducing a large amount of food waste. She has won numerous international, national, state, and local awards and recognition for her efforts in raising awareness against climate change, food waste, hunger, and youth empowerment.
Meet Shrusti
Shrusti’s past speaking engagement topics include: Food waste, Food Recovery, Composting, Gen Z activism, youth empowerment, her young solutionist journey, and more.
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