LET NO FOOD GO TO WASTE
By Chris Wadsworth
Believe it or not, Siddharth Nara, Arpit Pareek and Jayesh Muktaparapu are just 10th-graders at Rock Ridge High School in Ashburn and the Academies of Loudoun. They came up with the idea for Second Serving in the spring of 2024 and spent all summer working through the legal challenges of becoming a 501(c)3 nonprofit – which they accomplished.
Since then, they have established ongoing relationships with the Panera Bread in Ashburn, which donates leftover bread; the Woodlands vegetarian restaurant in Fairfax, which donates produce and other products, and their biggest supporter – the Crumbl cookie shop in Ashburn Village.
Siddharth has delivered cookies at the Loudoun Homeless Shelter in Leesburg and has seen the happy reaction from both adults and kids there.
“They’ve been really excited,” he said. “They don’t usually see things like Crumbl cookies. They usually see normal meal prep foods. I like to see the joy on their faces.”
Since collections started in late summer 2024, the teens have donated more than 1,000 pounds of food representing more than $10,000 in value.
They also participated in the Step Up Loudoun Youth Competition put on by Loudoun Youth Inc. The program challenges local kids to identify an issue in the community and create a solution to address it. Second Serving placed in the top 10.
The team is now working on setting up new partner businesses, including an Indian supermarket in Sterling as well as several additional restaurants in Loudoun.
The food items they collect go to the homeless shelter in Leesburg as well as to the Anna Sudha Community Kitchens in Sterling, which provides fresh meals to area residents in need.
The teens still have several years of high school left and hope to grow Second Serving not just locally, but also farther afield.
“We want to expand nationwide,” Arpit said. “And get a bigger volunteer outreach network and expand to different schools. We want to expand as far as we can.”
Organization: Second Serving Foundation
Founded: 2024
Founders: Siddharth Nara, Arpit Pareek, Jayesh Muktaparapu
Purpose: Reduce food waste by collecting leftover food from restaurants and markets to donate to local homeless shelters and food pantries
Website: secondservingorg.com
HOW TO HELP
To learn more about Second Serving, make a donation or partner with the nonprofit toward its goal of reducing food waste locally, visit secondservingorg.com.