DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — A local teenager is tackling two community problems at once — food insecurity and food waste — through a nonprofit he founded during his freshman year of high school.
Aadi Grover, a junior at American Heritage Schools - Palm Beach campus, started Meal4Everyone after noticing how much food his peers were wasting.
WATCH BELOW: South Florida teen fights hunger one rescued meal at a time
"Growing up in elementary and middle school, I noticed that so many students were throwing away their food. During my freshman year of high school, I knew I had to do something," Grover said.
Meal4Everyone connects with local restaurants and schools to collect excess food and distribute it to those in need through soup kitchens and homeless shelters.
"Every Sunday night, we pick up the food. In the mornings on our way to school, we drop it off at the soup kitchen," Grover said.
Grover said the model creates benefits on both sides of the equation.
"All the restaurants, grocery stores, and schools that we pick up food from benefit because they are lowering their food waste, and then the families because we are lowering food insecurity," Grover said.
In just two years, Grover has raised $15,000 in donations and expanded the organization to multiple states.
"We are active in three states, Florida, Massachusetts and North Carolina, and I hope to expand to five chapters by the summer," Grover said.
Nonprofits like the Soup Kitchen in Boynton Beach are taking notice of his work.
"Aadi is a great example of what community can look like," Soup Kitchen COO Dimitry Viarenich said.
The mission is simple.
"It doesn't matter what age you are, you can make a difference in other people's lives," Viarenich said.
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