Kidpreneur Day!

I just got back from Kidpreneur, and it went way better than I expected. I set up my EcoServe booth with my food spoilage sensor, my Kids Label Decoders, and a little basket of veggie bag clips to give out. Somewhere between 20 and 50 people stopped by my table, and I sold out of my Label Decoders! By the end I was down to my last 3 bag clips.

But the best part was the people I talked to.

The people I met

I think the most important part of the event is talking to people and helping them understand how big of a problem this is. Some of the people I met:

Savanna made my whole day. She told me my project was her favorite out of all the kidpreneurs there. She also told me she used to live in Oregon, where a lot of people fish, and they have this problem with fish bones and scraps, because nobody wants to eat the bones and head of a fish, and they didn’t know what to do with all of the waste. Apparently the University of Oregon has a very strong Food Sciences program, and they are doing research on this topic. They were able to come up with a method to compost all these scraps and sell them to various farms. I never thought about this type of food waste, but it made me realize food waste looks different in different places, but it’s a problem everywhere.

Savanna also gave me another new idea: fresh food has a higher electrical charge compared to food that has been harvested a while back (even if it is refrigerated). She said I can demonstrate this by plugging a lightbulb into the fruit, and seeing how much more the fresh fruit would light up than the old one. She also said that we can take the food wasted and compost it. Using the compost, we can sell it to places like restaurants. I learned here that there are many ways to help prevent food waste, even if it doesn’t seem obvious.

A man who works at a fire station told me he knows people in healthcare, who know people who work at food banks, and he thought all of them would really benefit from what I’m doing. This was really helpful! That’s exactly the kind of place I want EcoServe to end up.

One older gentleman told me he really needed my Label Decoder, because his wife is always throwing away the food he’s about to eat! That’s really funny, but it’s actually a perfect example of what EcoServe is about, people throwing away food that’s still totally fine.

A mom and her daughter said they loved the project, and the daughter told me that when school starts back up, she’s going to talk to her high school teachers to see if they’d be interested in EcoServe. That would be amazing! Spreading the word always helps.

What I learned

A few things I learned from today:

• People really do care about this once you explain it. I just have to start the conversation.
• Food waste shows up in ways I never thought about, like fish bones in Oregon. There’s so much more to learn.
• Giving away free stuff is fun, but what I really enjoy is the conversations and the connections.
• I need to print WAY more Label Decoders next time, because I ran out!

What’s next

I have more events coming up, including Coppell, so I’ll be restocking my Label Decoders and bag clips. I also want to follow up on some of the ideas people gave me today, especially the connections to food banks.

Today reminded me why I started EcoServe. One older man who keeps losing his dinner, one daughter who wants to bring this to her school, one person who’s seen food waste in a totally different state, every single conversation is one more person thinking twice before they throw good food away.

Thank you to everyone who came by my table today. And a special thank you to Savanna. You made my day.

• Sri