Excellent initiative at this young age! Wish his dad appreciates his work! He is already working for India's tomorrow! A nobel idea for sure!
He wants to end hunger, stop food waste in India
Padmanabhan, who used to spend a lot of time with students during their lunch break, he saw many of them dumping food into dustbins without a second thought.
One afternoon, after they left, he weighed the food they had thrown away; it weighed 18 kilos.
"I got really worried. It always upsets me when people waste food. We have thousands of people in India who go hungry every day. Then, I happened to be at a wedding and there too a lot of food was wasted. One day, I asked the waiter to pack half of the biryani I had ordered at a restaurant. I gave that packet of untouched food to an old lady who was sitting outside the restaurant. I still cannot forget the smile on her face," he recalls.
That night, Padmanabhan registered Nofoodwaste.in.
It was his habit to write down every new idea in his diary and buy a domain for it.
"It is like a hobby," he says.
He then formulated a plan to make children aware of the importance of not wasting food.
On October 16, 2014, International Food Day, he visited various schools and spoke to children about why they should not waste food.
"I told them that 15 per cent of India's population go hungry every day and we are on the top of the global charts when it comes to hunger and malnutrition. At the same time, in a city like Bengaluru, 940 tonnes of good untouched food is wasted annually in marriages alone. The children were shocked," he says.
Padmanabhan wrote to the schools in Coimbatore requesting the students to audit the amount of food wasted in their schools everyday.
Initially, 30 schools responded.
"I trained the student representatives on how to audit wasted food and how to spread awareness among other students. I also trained them to use the wasted food as compost for the school.
"I found that, in a school with less than 1,000 students, the daily food waste was about 10 to 12 kilos. There are 300 schools in and around Coimbatore so you can imagine the amount of food wasted daily! It is 9 lakh kilos a year!
"We also encouraged some of the schools to develop compost out of food waste, plant trees and use it as manure," continues Padmanabhan.
His dream is to make India a 'no food waste economy' and promote sustainable ideas.
He wants to make his father feel proud of what he is doing. Padmanabhan's father, a central government employee, was dead against his son becoming an entrepreneur.
"I learnt simplicity, understanding the difference between need and want and doing things properly from him, but the cold war between us is still going on. Though I have been doing this for the last four years, I haven't had a single word of appreciation from my father. In fact, he doesn't even speak to me. I am waiting for the day when he will appreciate my work. I am sure that, one day, he will be proud of me."
Padmanabhan, who started dreaming of his journey as a social entrepreneur after meeting and hearing Dr Abdul Kalam is heartbroken that he and his team will not be able to meet him. They were given an appointment to meet Dr Kalam on July 31 at 7.30 pm.
"I feel like an orphan. I do not know why destiny played such a cruel joke on us. I will make India a 'no food waste' country by 2020. I will fulfil Dr Kalam's Vision 2020.'
http://www.rediff.com/getahead/repo...-hunger-stop-food-waste-in-india/20150810.htm
He wants to end hunger, stop food waste in India
Padmanabhan, who used to spend a lot of time with students during their lunch break, he saw many of them dumping food into dustbins without a second thought.
One afternoon, after they left, he weighed the food they had thrown away; it weighed 18 kilos.
"I got really worried. It always upsets me when people waste food. We have thousands of people in India who go hungry every day. Then, I happened to be at a wedding and there too a lot of food was wasted. One day, I asked the waiter to pack half of the biryani I had ordered at a restaurant. I gave that packet of untouched food to an old lady who was sitting outside the restaurant. I still cannot forget the smile on her face," he recalls.
That night, Padmanabhan registered Nofoodwaste.in.
It was his habit to write down every new idea in his diary and buy a domain for it.
"It is like a hobby," he says.
He then formulated a plan to make children aware of the importance of not wasting food.
On October 16, 2014, International Food Day, he visited various schools and spoke to children about why they should not waste food.
"I told them that 15 per cent of India's population go hungry every day and we are on the top of the global charts when it comes to hunger and malnutrition. At the same time, in a city like Bengaluru, 940 tonnes of good untouched food is wasted annually in marriages alone. The children were shocked," he says.
Padmanabhan wrote to the schools in Coimbatore requesting the students to audit the amount of food wasted in their schools everyday.
Initially, 30 schools responded.
"I trained the student representatives on how to audit wasted food and how to spread awareness among other students. I also trained them to use the wasted food as compost for the school.
"I found that, in a school with less than 1,000 students, the daily food waste was about 10 to 12 kilos. There are 300 schools in and around Coimbatore so you can imagine the amount of food wasted daily! It is 9 lakh kilos a year!
"We also encouraged some of the schools to develop compost out of food waste, plant trees and use it as manure," continues Padmanabhan.
His dream is to make India a 'no food waste economy' and promote sustainable ideas.
He wants to make his father feel proud of what he is doing. Padmanabhan's father, a central government employee, was dead against his son becoming an entrepreneur.
"I learnt simplicity, understanding the difference between need and want and doing things properly from him, but the cold war between us is still going on. Though I have been doing this for the last four years, I haven't had a single word of appreciation from my father. In fact, he doesn't even speak to me. I am waiting for the day when he will appreciate my work. I am sure that, one day, he will be proud of me."
Padmanabhan, who started dreaming of his journey as a social entrepreneur after meeting and hearing Dr Abdul Kalam is heartbroken that he and his team will not be able to meet him. They were given an appointment to meet Dr Kalam on July 31 at 7.30 pm.
"I feel like an orphan. I do not know why destiny played such a cruel joke on us. I will make India a 'no food waste' country by 2020. I will fulfil Dr Kalam's Vision 2020.'
http://www.rediff.com/getahead/repo...-hunger-stop-food-waste-in-india/20150810.htm
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