Closing The Gap Between Excess And Need: The Emerging Voice OF Food Waste Advocacy, Riya Kamat

Riya Kamat is part of a generation that is increasingly unwilling to remain on the sidelines. A young food waste advocate, she believes that change is not something to wait for but something to build, step by step, in the spaces closest to her. For the Singapore-based 11th-grade student, originally from Mumbai, taking action is less about scale and more about responding to what is immediately visible.

On visits back to Mumbai, she began to notice something she couldn’t unsee. At the end of gatherings, trays of untouched food would be cleared away. Restaurants would shut their kitchens for the night with surplus still left behind. In many cases, this was happening within walking distance of communities where a full meal was not always certain.

“It didn’t make sense to me,” she says. “The food was there. It just wasn’t reaching the people who needed it.” For Riya, this contrast stayed with her. What began as a passing observation slowly turned into a question she kept returning to: why does food go to waste when the need for it is so visible?

At her core, Riya describes herself as someone who is driven by what is immediately in front of her. Rather than being overwhelmed by the scale of larger issues, she is drawn to the smaller, visible gaps, the kind that can be acted upon.

India wastes an estimated 68–78 million tonnes of food every year, even as millions remain food insecure. But for Riya, the issue was never just about numbers. It was about proximity, about how excess and need could exist side by side, yet remain disconnected.

Over time, she began to look at the problem differently. It wasn’t about how much food was being produced. It was about how it was being moved.

That shift in thinking marked a turning point. Rather than seeing food waste only as a social or environmental issue, Riya began to view it as a coordination challenge, one that required timely action and local networks to solve. The idea that something so immediate could still be so inefficient became central to how she approached the problem.

In mid 2025, she began working on what would become Food Connect, an effort to create a simple, responsive tech-platform that could help redirect surplus food before it went to waste. The approach was intentionally straightforward, relying on people and coordination rather than complex infrastructure.

But the process, she realised quickly, was anything but simple. “Food doesn’t wait,” she says. “If you don’t act quickly, the opportunity is gone.” This understanding shaped how she approached the work, focusing on responsiveness, consistency, and the ability to act in real time. It also meant working closely with others, building trust, and ensuring that people showed up when needed.

Her inclination to act on immediate, visible needs is not new. Riya is also involved in Senior Connect, an initiative she co-founded aimed at engaging with and supporting elderly individuals who often face isolation. That experience, she notes, shaped her understanding of how many everyday challenges go unnoticed, not because they are complex, but because they are not actively addressed.

“There are so many gaps around us,” she says. “You just have to pay attention to them.” In its early stages, her current work has brought together a growing network of students, local partners, and volunteers working to make redistribution possible within a limited window of time. For Riya, the experience has been as much about learning as it has been about impact.

“There’s a lot you can’t control,” she reflects. “But you can build something that works better than what exists.” What stands out in her approach is not just the effort itself, but how she frames it.

Riya does not see these challenges as distant or unsolvable. Instead, she believes they are made up of smaller practical gaps that can be addressed if people are willing to take initiative. This belief is closely tied to how she sees her own generation.

“We can’t wait for things to change on their own,” she says. “If we want a different system, we have to start building it.” It is a perspective that reflects a broader shift among young people today, one that prioritises action over awareness and solutions over discussion.

At the same time, she is clear-eyed about the challenges ahead. Making something work once is very different from making it work consistently. Questions of reliability, safety, and scale remain central to anything that aims to operate over time.

For her, however, the focus remains steady. She is not trying to solve every aspect of food insecurity. Instead, she is working on a specific part of the problem, the gap between surplus and access, where food is lost not because it is unwanted, but because it is not moved in time.

That clarity gives her work a certain direction. In a world where large problems often feel overwhelming, Riya Kamat’s approach is rooted in something more immediate, noticing what is around her, asking why it works the way it does, and choosing to act on it.

And sometimes, as she has found, that is where change begins.