{"id":62279,"date":"2020-11-04T04:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T08:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/?p=62279"},"modified":"2020-11-06T09:17:33","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T13:17:33","slug":"bioengineering-student-creates-nonprofit-to-reduce-waste-and-provide-food-to-people-in-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/11_04_2020\/bioengineering-student-creates-nonprofit-to-reduce-waste-and-provide-food-to-people-in-need","title":{"rendered":"Bioengineering Student Creates Nonprofit to Reduce Waste and Provide Food to People in Need"},"content":{"rendered":"

A nonprofit started by a University of Toledo student earlier this year has already delivered more than 1,000 pounds of food to people in need.<\/p>\n

Founded by UToledo senior Rupesh Boddapati and named after his parents, Gita and Jagadish, GJ-Alleviating Hunger & Food Waste is an initiative to help southern Michigan restaurants and other meal providers deliver excess food to local food pantries, food banks and soup kitchens.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to food, most of us tend to take it for granted,\u201d said Boddapati, a bioengineering senior in the Bacc2MD program who plans to start medical school in the UToledo College of Medicine and Life Science after graduation. \u201cAs long as we have food on the table, we are good for the day; however, that is not the case everywhere in the world. Thousands of families suffer from malnourishment every single day, and at the same time, we have thousands of pounds of food being thrown away every day. This is the inefficiency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a spiritual individual and I believe the highest form of service is that of giving food to those who lack it,\u201d Boddapati added. \u201cThis is how GJ-Alleviating Hunger & Food Waste was born.\u201d<\/p>\n

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UToledo senior Rupesh Boddapati’s nonprofit, GJ-Alleviating Hunger & Food Waste, is an initiative to help southern Michigan restaurants and other meal providers deliver excess food to local food pantries, food banks and soup kitchens.<\/p><\/div>\n

The journey to success of GJ-Alleviating Hunger & Food Waste is much like Boddapati\u2019s own at UToledo.<\/p>\n

He arrived on campus in 2017 as a recent high school graduate who mostly kept to himself and was involved in only a few extracurricular activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that mentality simply wouldn\u2019t work. I was not only new to the state of Ohio, but I was new to the campus. I didn\u2019t know anybody,\u201d said Boddapati,. \u201cI needed to change, to interact with as wide a range of people as possible, and to get involved in as many organizations as possible to build my skill set and experiences and build a name for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then he has joined or worked with nearly 20 university and national organizations, including as a former Student Government senator, a member of the College of Engineering Student Advisory Board, and the Campus Recruitment and Membership Director of the Golden Key Organization. He also founded and served as president of HOSA Future Health Professionals.<\/p>\n

That kind of determination was instrumental in Boddapati overcoming a few obstacles to realize his dream of launching GJ-Alleviating Hunger & Food Waste in and around his home in Northville, Mich.<\/p>\n

After some failed attempts to secure funding during the launch, GJ-Alleviating Hunger & Food Waste\u2019s Board of Directors, which includes vice president and fellow UToledo student Madhu Ramireddy, reached out to organizations and businesses and received support from the African People’s Association and Punjabi Student Association, both of which are UToledo organizations.<\/p>\n

Boddapati\u2019s nonprofit filed with the IRS and the strategy shifted once it received its tax-exempt status this spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe began to reach out to more food providers,\u201d he said. \u201cOn June 15, our first provider, Dunkin\u2019 in Plymouth, Mich., was approved, and on June 25, our Panera food provider in Livonia, Mich., was also approved. And on June 28, I conducted our first collection: 8-dozen donuts from Dunkin’ to the Salvation Army in Farmington, Mich.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our first month of operations we aided in the transfer of 59-dozen donuts and 70 pounds of bread to our food storage areas: the Salvation Army of Farmington Hills, Mich., and Aunt Na’s Village in Detroit,\u201d Boddapati added. \u201cWe also adopted a road through the Road Commission of Oakland County in Michigan.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has plans to expand his Michigan-based nonprofit into Toledo. For those interested in supporting GJ-Alleviating Hunger & Food Waste can connect with the nonprofit through its Facebook page, facebook.com\/GJFoodNetwork<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelping others is a manifestation of humanity,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that is what I hope to do through GJ-Alleviating Hunger & Food Waste.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>

A nonprofit started by a University of Toledo student has already delivered more than 1,000 pounds of food to people in need this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":878,"featured_media":62280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,47,71,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/878"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62279"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62312,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62279\/revisions\/62312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}