Vincent Xia, Navami Jain, Megan Wu and Michelle Bao who founded Trofi, a food byproduct re-purposing, online platform.

These four teens saw that tons of food ends up in dumps and does not end up being used for any purpose. They wanted to change this. Local farmers around the area are always looking for nutrient rich products to put in their compost to help grow crops. With the abundance of food waste from businesses, these teens saw an opportunity and need not yet met. They set out to create an online platform that connects businesses who are discarding food scraps with farmers, who could use the discarded food scraps. The food scraps may be used for animal feed or compost depending on the type of scraps. The online platform allows the farmers and companies to post their needs – whether that be to get rid of scraps or to receive scraps. Trofi lets the users post what type of scraps are being given and any relevant details that need to be known by farmers.

These teens have shown a great, innovative way to help solve food byproduct issues as well as turn it into a for-profit business opportunity. By being observant and thoughtful while hanging out at a Jamba Juice, they have created themselves a promising business model. This idea will help local farmers and businesses flourish and have access to resources they did not realize were always there in front of them.