Rachel Sumekh is a 26-year-old entrepreneur whose grand entrepreneurship journey began in college, at UCLA. Driven by enormous empathy for the large homeless population of L. A., Rachel and her friends searched for an opportunity for homeless outreach. As college students, the friends had little money or resources, but they did have one thing: college meal plans. Using their unneeded meal points, Rachel and her friends personally delivered dining hall food to the homeless around town. Realizing the opportunity at their fingertips, the students partnered with the college dining services to allow all students on campus to donate meal funds to fee the homeless community. Under Rachel’s leadership, the program has evolved considerably and been named “Swipe Out Hunger.” Operating at campuses across America, “Swipe Out Hunger” allows students with limited resources to help the homeless by donating funds that would have otherwise gone to waste.
The aspect of these young entrepreneurs that I consistently find to be exemplary is how often they start their ventures in the thralls of college. I cannot imagine working on a project of this scale while being a student at the same time. Beyond this, it is amazing to me the skills and courage these entrepreneurs, like Rachel, exhibit in being able to pursue the startup beyond graduation. The idea of “Swipe Out Hunger” is so great firstly because it utilizes an unallocated resource (i.e. extra meal funds) and secondly, it allows each individual student to directly impact and become involved in the mission of the program.
I think it’s a cool business idea. I know that I haven’t used all of my meals here, and as a freshman, I can’t change my meal plan. Some of the money towards my meal plan is going to waste. It’s a brilliant idea that with your extra meal points, you can deliver meals to homeless people. This is definitely a social project that could be utilized on all college campuses.
People often are willing to give what they don’t use, they just don’t realize the opportunity to give. Here is an unusual way to give in a very real way to the people of the community, without it costing you any more than what you already have. It would be really cool to see something like this on campus, because I know just about everyone on campus has meal swipes they do not use and the cafeterias regularly throw away food which people don’t eat.
This is a really cool concept! Using what you won’t personally use to bless others. I love that this is really a simple concept. A need was identified and then solved. It is as simple as meal plans sometimes. It is nice to be reminded of that.