Reducing waste, nourishing communities — that’s the mission of Truly Fresh, a nonprofit started by junior Xara Aman that targets produce waste. The organization collects excess fruit in neighborhoods around the Bay Area and donates it to West Valley Community Services, a Cupertino-based nonprofit focused on combating hunger and homelessness.
At seven years old, Aman enjoyed playing outside under the vibrant California sun. Only, instead of being greeted with only greenery and gardens, she was als met with the rotten remains of neglected fruit scattered across the soil. This sight fueled Aman’s passion to end food waste, a dream that would stick with her for eight years before she started Truly Fresh in July.
“I consider California’s fertile soil as both a blessing and a curse,” Aman said. “A blessing, because it can grow this much fruit, but also a curse, because no one can eat all of it on their own — it seems physically impossible.”
In the two months since Truly Fresh was officially launched, they have already created a working website and received hundreds of pounds of produce donations. Once an individual expresses interest in donating, Truly Fresh members drive to their home and pick up the fruit. Truly Fresh provides an alternative to leaving the fruit to rot, delivering the still-edible produce to partner organizations that will then directly hand out the food to those in need.
“I knew that a lot of fruits from my backyard would go to waste,” junior and donor Stanley Tan said. “I might as well have Truly Fresh collect some of them so they won’t be wasted.”
The team behind Truly Fresh consists of Aman and a few friends who reached out to her with the interest of supporting the initiative. The prospect of contributing to an organization with a unique approach to an everlasting issue appealed to many people in the Lynbrook community.
When the organization started, Truly Fresh’s team would go door to door to spread awareness about their mission. After a significant number of residents expressed interest, they began offering free delivery services to collect donations, an amount decided by the resident. In late July, the group started to promote online, spreading the word through their Instagram and Tiktok profiles. In order to boost engagement, posts often involve pop culture trends, such as references to Drake and Crumbl Cookies.
“This is a creative way to grab people’s attention,” junior and marketing lead Carmel Astebah said. “We’ve already had several people sign up as donors and completed a couple of successful drop-offs at local food banks.”
On Truly Fresh’s website, users can schedule times for pickup from their homes or to drop off their produce at designated locations. After donating, users can earn donation points to unlock different statuses, from bronze to gold, and even win prizes in the future. The top five donors are celebrated and recognized through a leaderboard feature on their website. Community is a big part of Truly Fresh. Users can view what others have donated through the community wall feature and view relevant news on the organization’s blog.
“There’s a ton of fruit in my backyard, and my family doesn’t even use one percent of the fruits from it,” junior and lead donor Neal Bansal said. “I have encouraged a lot of my friends to participate in donating. It’s a good idea, too, because we all know most of the fruits in our backyard are just going to get eaten by squirrels, so why not let the humans eat them instead?”
Despite the initial success of Truly Fresh, the journey has not been without challenges. One major problem the organization has experienced is funding, as many tabling events require a booth fee.
Another challenge has been getting people to sign up on their website after their initial donation. In order to get a spot on the website leaderboard, individuals must make an account. One strategy the organization employed to incentivize signups was to ask donors to sign up on the spot, when a volunteer came to collect fruits from the house.
“It’s a race to grow and expand,” Salme said. “We’re confident in our ability to grow a network, and especially with the autumn season coming up, we’re hoping to do more and have high hopes for the future.”
Moving forward, Aman hopes to expand their impact by working to reduce food waste by 40% and salvage around 1,000 pounds of produce, all within this year.
“We want to make our organization large-scale eventually,” Aman said. “But for now, small steps, baby steps will definitely help. With this work, I really want to create a tight-knit community because, as I say, a family that eats together, stays together.”
