Maryland Teen’s Nonprofit Helping With Climate Crisis

Shrusti Amula, learned that food waste contributes to climate change and she wanted to make a difference. The 16-year-old from Maryland decided to use the climate crisis to help address hunger and homelessness. She founded Rise N Shine Foundation in 2019 and started her first composting program at a local school.

Composting offers numerous environmental and agricultural benefits. For starters, composting redirects organic waste away from landfills. When organic waste is stored in landfills, it generates a greenhouse gas called methane. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, methane is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of its heat trapping capacity.

Rise N Shine Foundation’s composting program collects food waste during school lunch hours and hauls it back to composting sites. Partnering with multiple local schools and corporate sponsors, the organization currently runs composting programs in eight schools and has gathered over 150,000 meals for families facing food insecurity.

Through her efforts, she has diverted 200,000 pounds of food waste from landfills and helped schools reach the “Green School” certification process. The composting program is just one of dozens of programs from her non-profit organization. They’re dedicated to motivating people of all ages and backgrounds to take on leadership positions to help the less fortunate.