Preetha Rajkumar and Selvapriya Rajkumar

[00:01] PREETHA RAJKUMAR: Hi. My name is Preetha Rajkumar. I'm 24 years old. Today is January 6, 2023, in El Paso, Texas, and I'm here with my mother, who's my interview partner.

[00:09] SELVA PRIYA RAJ KUMAR: Hi, my name is Selva Priya Raj Kumar. January 6, 2023. I'm from El Paso, Texas, and I'm going to interview my daughter, Preetha Raj Kumar. Okay, what and why you think of this concept to start an organization called no Lost Foot.

[00:31] PREETHA RAJKUMAR: So the main reason I wanted to start any organization to begin with was I've always felt the need and the connection to the community to serve the people in whatever way and form I can. So that's kind of what my first thought was. A lot of people in my family have been doing community service for years, which has triggered me into going in that direction. No, lost food is my baby. I love food. Food is essential for anyone and everyone. So there's been an issue with hunger across the world and seeing it in front of your eyes and at one point being like, what can I do to make a difference? You know, even if it's the smallest thing possible, you know, giving a meal to someone, you know, means a lot for them. And it also is very satisfying. So kind of off the realms of what can I do for helping others and everything, especially with the crisis of food. I was like, no, lost food is a perfect thing. With food rescue, there's a lot of food waste happening out there, and just wanted to make sure that food went into the right people's hands rather than the landfills.

[01:52] SELVA PRIYA RAJ KUMAR: So what exactly is no lost food, and what is the core concept of the organization?

[01:59] PREETHA RAJKUMAR: So no lost food is to start off a dream of a 20 year old college student. Started with a couple of my friends back at UTEP, and it was just a way to give back to the community the major crisis, which is one, is world hunger. The second is food waste. There's a lot of people who are going hungry each and every day, but at the same time, there's a lot of people who are throwing out perfectly edible food because of some printed date on the product without checking the product for the quality they just throw it out of because it's been sitting in their pantry for a day longer than they wanted it to. And that's where this kind of concept came around, a food rescue. I did a little bit of searching on the Internet and everything and found out that this is not a completely novel concept, but it is rather nude for Texas and especially El Paso. And it's a small thing. It's kind of like a Robin Hood concept. You know, you're taking it from people who are like, I don't want this. And instead of throwing it out where it goes to the landfill and it becomes nothing. It doesn't amount to anything other than waste. You know, you take it from that and you move it out before it even reaches there to the people. Then it becomes something. It becomes a meal for those who are struggling. And that's the core concept and idea behind this. There's been a lot of, what can I donate? How can I donate? A lot of questions. And what happens? This is one of the questions I kept getting, and I've told you the stories of this in the past, but what happens if I donate food and somebody gets sick? The very common question, it's about liability. Yes. So liability was a question that initially was asked of me, like, what is the liability with this? And that's when my wonderful mother did some research and we had a eureka moment, if you want to talk about that.

[04:08] SELVA PRIYA RAJ KUMAR: Yes. We just was talking about one night, and then the next morning I was going through Google and a lot of other searches and tried to find out what the liability issue was. We found out, as you mentioned, it was an eureka moment that we found out it's about Bill Emerson, good Samaritan Food Donation act. It was all applied to all the 50 states in United States. And we found that and we were like, okay, hey, we can do it. It's something that is feasible for us to do a seminar or try to educate people about the act and then try to rescue the food from source restaurants or any other places. You know, that's especially. So what is your motto and mission of this? No lost food.

[05:07] PREETHA RAJKUMAR: So the motto of the organization is save food, reduce hunger. And as I've been stressing, I don't think I can stress it enough, the amount of food waste and the amount of people that are going hungry. So it had to be a two fold mission and a motto to put in simple terms, because you're having edible food being thrown out, and I'm going to sound like a broken record right now, but that is exactly what's happening. Fresh produce, canned items, a lot of things are being thrown out, and yet at the same time, millions are going hungry. So this twofold safe food is making sure it doesn't end up in landfills and go to waste and reduce hunger at the same time. You know, that's how this motto came about. And the mission is just expanding on the motto of how do we save the food. When it comes to rescuing from individuals, any sort of food industries, whether it's restaurants, bakeries, stores, if food is available there, I am ready to pick up. You know, that's kind of what the organization stands for, and all this food. So going back a little bit, back to liability, we have that act, but also just to ensure the safety of both the donors and the recipients. In no last food, we also do the quality control check before the food goes out to any of our recipients, just to make sure, because somebody may be like, hey, this food's good. And they donate it to us, and sometimes, you know, you can miss it, and something has just, you know, started to go bad. What do we do with those kind of foods? Well, we move it down what we call a food waste hierarchy. So what we try to do is we try to educate people as much as possible to buy exactly what they're going to eat, because there's sales out there all the time. Albertsons, Walmart, any store, you name it has some sort of sale going on. And when we go grocery shopping, some people, you got to make sure you can pull that dollar as much as you can. So you go buy the sale item. Nothing wrong in that. But does everybody eat everything we buy to? And that's where the issue comes about of food waste. So we try to educate the community as much as possible. Sometimes it's not possible. We understand that. That's why we have the avenue of donated to us. Once it's donated to us, that's when we're like, okay, we do the check, and if it's good, great. It goes down to people. So we support shelter homes here in El Paso and in Juarez. We also support individual families, the homeless, anyone who's in need of food. There is no discrimination of who needs food and who doesn't get in everything. Anybody who needs food that day deserves the access to food. So it goes to them. Sometimes, if we notice it's starting to go bad little by little, because food does go bad after a certain time. And I'll explain a little bit more about that in just a moment. But as it starts to go bad, we're like, okay, what's the next step? Instead of directly going to landfills, because landfills, it's just going to cause a lot of environmental damage. Methane gas and all sorts of unwanted gases get formed because of the. I'll get into a lot of science because I am a medical student, so I love the science behind it, but it forms so many chemicals that are not good for us. And not good for us to intake and stuff like that. Before it goes to that, we give it to animal feed, and then sometimes, okay, it's not even good for animals, we move it down to composting. Now, this question was asked a lot of you that people have asked you that. It's like, what's the difference between composting and landfills?

[08:43] SELVA PRIYA RAJ KUMAR: Yes, it is completely different. Two different things. Composting is organic fertilizer that can be repurposed, as you know, for gardening or any kind of places that need those kind of fertilizers. But landfills doesn't do that. I mean, as you mentioned, it forms a lot of toxic gases. So landfill and composting are both two different things. I mean, all the questions happens. So what does food rescue due to the community and how does it benefit the community?

[09:25] PREETHA RAJKUMAR: So when it comes to the community, it feeds many, many, many hungry stomachs. And this is from kids to adults, because hunger doesn't discriminate with age, gender, race, it doesn't discriminate. Everybody gets hungry. So it feeds anyone and everyone that is asking for food. That's the main community aspect of this. But also we are looking into the more, you know, how do I say it? It's more like sustainability aspect as well. Making sure that we have not a linear economy, but more a circular economy when it comes to how we go about our days, you know, how we live our lives. We're not only just trying to reduce the food waste, which is why we go to composting. Also, a side note on the composting, they probably ask you that question more than me because they know I'll get into science and people don't want to listen to my lecture. But just on the same line, we don't want it to just be like, straight, you know, it's being produced, go to landfills if it's circular, because once we make those compost and everything like that, and even animal feed can be used for composting. So they feed the animals, the animals. Manure is actually used for composting. So at the end of the day, it is going back into that circle and it's being used for production of more crops. So another question that I have gotten is like, you know, why is hunger still an issue when there's so much waste happening? The thing is that we are producing enough food to feed everyone. These stats that I was looking at is alarming. One American, on average, wastes about at least 400 pounds of food per year. Now it's like, okay, one person 400 pounds. Eh, it's not too much. But do the math of the amount of people that just live in Texas itself, or for example, just El Paso. It adds up really quickly to the point where we can feed just by saving the food that is wasted. In the United States today, we can feed over 1 billion people. And the amount of people that are about going hungry each and every day is the exact numbers, I think are like 828 million. So close to a billion. So just from one country. If we're saving that much food, the issue is not just with production, it is with distribution. So this goes into a bigger aspect of society where we just need to make sure that food is actually being distributed properly. We have places that are food deserts, where people lack access to good quality food. Which is also another thing that no lost food is trying to do, is making sure that people in these sort of locations that we call food deserts have access to the food. And that's also what our team is doing to reaching out to those locations and getting in contact with them, being like, okay, what type of food do you need? What can we help? Because another thing is we have a community pantry program. Now. I call it a program and not a pantry, because a food pantry is different. The current concept, after Covid, I would have to say, is different to the community pantry program. One main aspect is not everyone is going to eat the same amount of rice or drink the same amount of milk in every single family. There are families that go to these food banks and food pantries that are lactose intolerant. But by certain regulations, they have to give them x amount of milk or x amount of meat, whatever the items have to be. And that's also another reason why there's a lot of waste that's happening. It's a great thing that food's being given to those in need, but at the same time, are they actually eating all the food that's being given to them due to these sort of programs? And that's why we have the community pantry program, which I'd like you to explain a little bit more about.

[13:38] SELVA PRIYA RAJ KUMAR: As you mentioned before, the dates on products, what exactly do you mean? You know, how that ends up on the landfills, these kind of products, or, you know, whatever happens to be? What happens if they call it expiration dates? So do you want to explain about it a little more?

[14:01] PREETHA RAJKUMAR: Of course. So the expiration date that everyone sees on products is not an actual expiration date. It is not a hard and fast set rule with those dates. It's common English, to say the least. If you see sell by, what's the first thing that comes to your mind?

[14:21] SELVA PRIYA RAJ KUMAR: You sell things by that date.

[14:23] PREETHA RAJKUMAR: Yeah. It doesn't ring an alarm when somebody sees sell, buy, or it shouldn't. Actually saying that that's when I need to eat the food by. Right?

[14:34] SELVA PRIYA RAJ KUMAR: Yeah, right.

[14:35] PREETHA RAJKUMAR: That's the misconception. A lot of people believe that the government, the USDA, and all those people are regulating these dates that are being printed on products when the fact is, and there is a lot of documentation out there, these are not regulated by USDA at all. The only thing that USDA regulates is infant formula. And that is obviously for the safety of the children, and that is completely understandable. But with any other products, there is no regulations by USDA of when the manufacturers have to print the date, there is no storage. You know, like, usually in some places, you see the manufacturer's date, the package date, and then when it's technically, like, expired. So this is not being regulated. Reason being is that in the past, when they did a full analysis, they used to be. Now you don't see in any products there. And I'm saying, even like 15 years ago, I remember seeing expiration date on products, but now you're only seeing best buy, sell, buy, use, buy. These are recommendations that the manufacturer's giving. So, you know, lay's chips, that's a perfect example that we always give in our seminars, is it's going to be crispy and crunched. That's the lay's chip. You want the saltiness. It's not that great for your health, but still, we want that. So if, you know, one day you pick up a bag of chips and it's gone stale, and you're like, oh, my God, this is not the lace chips. And then you hate the company forever because it's not up to their standard. That's why these companies put the date. The chip isn't bad sometimes. I mean, sorry, most times the chips aren't bad. It's just they're not up to the company's standard of taste, of crunchiness, of saltiness. There is nothing to do with the actual safety of the product. Perfect example is canned items. A lot of canned items last. Again, one more thing that I have to say is storage is key. So proper storage. A lot of these items last far longer than the dates printed. So we always say you have five senses. Use them, look at the product, smell it. Usually by the time you look and smell at it and smell the product, you have an idea if it's good or bad. Sometimes if everything looks good, then give it a taste. I'm pretty sure it's going to be good. It's probably not gone bad. So use your senses. Make sure you actually look at the product before you throw it out. So this is a misconception that this is regulated and we have to follow it, because if 1 second there's, what is it? The magic fairy or dust or something that comes in and just goes poof, everything goes bad. That's not true. Just because something's, let's say, January 6, it's going to expire doesn't mean that tomorrow it's going to go bad. So that's the thing. Just please, please, please. I cannot emphasize this enough, but use your senses. Look at the stuff. Smell the food before you decide if it's good or bad. And if you are still like, okay, it smells good, it looks good, everything's great. You still have no idea. That's why we have food rescues. Like, no lost food. You can always donate it to us because in the case it's like, okay, it's gone bad. We can move it down to animal feeder composting. It doesn't have to end up in landfills. And that's one of the major things that we keep on pressing is we don't want food in landfills. We want it to go back into that circular economy that I mentioned earlier.

[18:10] SELVA PRIYA RAJ KUMAR: So your ultimate goal is nothing goes to landfill.

[18:13] PREETHA RAJKUMAR: Exactly.

[18:14] SELVA PRIYA RAJ KUMAR: Is that correct?

[18:15] PREETHA RAJKUMAR: Yes.

[18:15] SELVA PRIYA RAJ KUMAR: Okay. So what do you think of the future? Future of the Ford rescue or as you can, you know, what gives backs to the community or the environment, whatever it may be. Do you want to talk a little bit about it? Yeah.

[18:31] PREETHA RAJKUMAR: So the future is right now. It is happening as we speak. And as I mentioned, the community pantry, that's something that we're doing. And in that pantry. So why I say it's a little bit unique, especially post Covid, is you can shop the pantry, meaning if you don't want to get a can of beans because you have so many, you don't have to get those cans of beans. So it's up to you what you get and what you want for your family. And you get as much as you need for your family. It's not a regulation of for a family of four based on nutritious value and serving sizes. We're going to give you x amount of cans. My family doesn't eat a lot. Okay, then you only need four cans. Great. That's all you need. My family eats like a monster. Enjoy. You need ten cans. You can take that. So that's another thing. That's part of the things educating people, like, please try your best to buy what you need. No. Lost food is also trying to just expand our services to different cities. We are trying to grow bigger because the issue is not just El Paso, Texas, it is across the globe. So we are definitely reaching out to the community in whatever aspect we can. We're trying to help the elderly population, because there's many aspects with the elderly population. Sometimes it's just they have trouble transport, so somebody has to drop everything off with them. Like, how can we help them get good, nutritious food? So there's many programs like this that are in the lineup that we're working out as we speak. And at the end of the day, it's just we need volunteers. We need to get more awareness about food waste out in the community and what harm it's actually doing to not just the environment, but to ourselves and to our fellow citizens, regardless of where we are. Because, again, hunger doesn't discriminate. Everybody gets hungry. And just a fun note is the first rescue for this. It's one of those vivid memories, and I've told this story so many times, being that I'm a student at UTEP. At that time, I was taking immunology. It was over a summer course. That was the first rescue that the organization ever did. The funny fact is that there was a meeting before our class in the classroom. It was a very small classroom. It was, I believe, 16 students and then our professor. So there was like a faculty meeting before that in that same classroom, and they had food left over. The catering service didn't come pick up the food. So I was like, okay, I'll take all the food once class is over and everything. So we had like, since it's over a summer course, it was a four hour long class, so 2 hours, and there was a break. So during the break, I'm like, okay, nobody's gonna come pick up the food. I was just sitting there, you know, studying, doing my own thing. The minute the break is over, we have the catering people come in. They come take the food. I am this person who decides to scream in the middle of class, being like, stop the lecture. My professor was confused till this minute. He reminds me of it whenever I email him about these things. He's like, you were the person who yelled in my class. So I yelled him to stop the class, and everybody was shocked. Me and my friend, who was also volunteering at that time, we ran out behind these people. Everybody was confused. What are these two crazies doing? And then when we come back, we have trays of food. Like, it wasn't properly wrapped or anything. It was in the aluminum. There was a. What are those gas things? Lights. I don't know the name of them, but they're at the bottom. So we just put everything in trays and in plates, and we're bringing them. You know, both my hands were full, and I was trying to hold, like, doing a balancing act, and so was my friend. And everybody's like, if you were hungry, you could have had the food before. And I'm like, no, no, no, I'm not hungry. I'm taking this food to a shelter home. That was the first rescue. So by that time, we hadn't contacted shelter homes. So I'm messaging you, being like, we need to get a shelter home ASAP.

[22:58] SELVA PRIYA RAJ KUMAR: Yes. I called three or four shelter homes. Some of them answered, and they said, you have to come back, talk to us after a week, and get things done. Paperwork's done. Everything needs to be done before we accept the food. I kept calling shelter homes by shelter homes, and then at last I found one near downtown, and they said, okay, any food, we'll accept. That's the first shelter home that we contacted, and till this minute, we are with them forever. So that's one thing I remember. You just messaged me and said, okay, get a shelter home that we can donate these food to. Still remember.

[23:42] PREETHA RAJKUMAR: I still have that message. I literally was like, I need a shelter home to donate food. My mom had no idea, because at that time, it was very much a baby organization. We just. I think it's been, what, two months since we got the official paperwork when this happened? So she has no idea at that time. And then as time went on, I started to realize we needed to network, and that's when I also brought her in as the manager of the organization at that time. So it's, you know, it's a growing organization. It's gonna become almost a five year old kid pretty soon. As of May 2023, it's gonna be a five year old kid, causing a lot of ruckus, hopefully in a good way. So at the end of the day, you know, we're just trying to make sure that no lost food. We're trying to save food, reduce hunger. And that's my closing statement. Please, please, please make sure that you don't waste food. And if you can't eat something or you buy too much, please contact us if we're in your region or your local food rescue and we'd be happy to help pick up the surplus and put it to good use. So safe food, reduced hunger. And thank you so much. And thank you for being my interview partner today.

[25:00] SELVA PRIYA RAJ KUMAR: My closing statement would be nothing goes to landfills. That is one thing we are trying our best at no last foot to proceed and educate the community about. Dont send anything to landfills. So thats the main goal of the organization.