Kent, Southeast alum, created the One Meal A Week program as a way for students to donate their unused meal plan dollars to the Redhawk Food Pantry.

The idea for the program started as a class project to develop a business idea during the fall 2018 semester, Kent said. He knew he wanted to combine a business with charity, and reduce food waste.

“In my research, I found out how much waste there is on college campuses, and I felt that the best place to start would be here at Southeast,” he said. “I also found that students are wasting a lot of their meal plan funds. They’ll either not use them or buy, for example, 50 Gatorades at the end of each week, that then sit in their dorm rooms.”

One Meal A Week raised nearly $10,000 in food donations since the program’s start.