About us

About the Co-Founder

Laasya Pedapati, co-founder of Closing Time and a senior at South Fayette High School, has been driven by a deep sense of social responsibility. Her journey began with volunteering at the Bridgeville Community Food Bank, where she observed the escalating struggle of families to provide food for their children, particularly during challenging times.

The onset of the pandemic exacerbated the situation, with news of people enduring long lines for food. Laasya recognized the profound impact that food scarcity has on people's lives, especially during tough times, and her determination to address this issue intensified. Laasya firmly believed that regardless of their circumstances, everyone deserves access to food and a sense of dignity. This belief propelled her to take action.

Teaming up with her friend Arjun, both sharing deep concerns about food insecurity, they co-founded Closing Time, a nonprofit organization. Their mission is to bridge the gap between surplus food resources and the needs of homeless shelters, aiming to alleviate the acute food scarcity issues in their communities.

About the Founder

Arjun Khanna, the founder of Closing Time, and a senior at Newark Academy High School grew up with close connections to his Edison community. He often attended his local Gurudwara, a place of worship, which serves free food after prayer to everyone irrespective of their religion or social status. Watching his parents volunteer at local soup kitchens preparing food for the hungry made him aware of the severity of food insecurity around the world.

Inspiration

In 2019, Arjun was visiting Philadelphia along with his brother for a college visit. He was looking forward to his planned visit to Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market and the possibility of picking up donuts from Beiler’s Bakery, his favorite donut shop in the city. As he walked towards Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market, he was saddened by seeing the plight of homeless individuals who were begging for money and food. At Beiler’s while ordering his donuts the worker at the shop offered him additional donuts at no extra cost. He was pleasantly surprised and thankful for the gesture. However, when he hesitantly asked the clerk as to why they were giving away so many baked goods, he was told that they would have otherwise discarded them as they cannot sell day-old baked goods. Upon further research he realized the scale of preventable food wastage and became acutely aware of the lost possibility of putting this much needed resource to good use. There was an unfortunate irony, the food wastage he had witnessed and the food insecurity he had seen in the city around him.

Closingtime is born

After conducting further research, he realized that the majority of restaurants and bakeries dispose of unsold food at closing time every business day. The USDA estimates that somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of the United States food supply is wasted. That equates to $300 billion worth of food wastage in 2018.* This amount of waste has a far-reaching impact on society. Arjun knew he wanted to simultaneously address both food insecurity and food waste on a larger scale. He believed in the possibility of convincing businesses to donate leftover food and the use of technology to connect them with organizations such as homeless shelters willing to accept much needed food. Once he had this strategy, he decided to create a nonprofit organization to help address this issue. Thus, Closing Time, was born.