About us

About the Co-Founder

Arjun Khanna, the co-founder of Closing Time and a senior at Newark Academy High School, has long been involved in community service through school clubs and local initiatives. He frequently attended his local Gurudwara, a place of worship that provides free meals to all, regardless of religion or social status. Watching his parents volunteer at local soup kitchens further deepened his awareness of the severity of food insecurity worldwide.

The onset of the pandemic exacerbated the crisis, with news of people enduring long lines just to receive a meal. Arjun firmly believed that access to food is a basic human right, and no one should be deprived of it. This conviction motivated him to take action.

Teaming up with his brother, Akshay, who shared his deep concern 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, working to alleviate food scarcity in their communities.

About the Founder

Akshay Khanna, the founder of Closing Time and a medical student at Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia, has always maintained strong ties to his local community in Edison. Through his frequent visits to India, he witnessed the harsh realities of food insecurity firsthand. As someone passionate about cooking and baking for his friends in his free time, Akshay understood the power of even the simplest food gestures in bringing joy to others.

The Inspiration

In 2019, during a college interview trip to Philadelphia, Akshay looked forward to visiting Reading Terminal Market, particularly Beiler’s Bakery—his favorite donut shop in the city. However, as he made his way through the streets, he was struck by the stark contrast between the abundance of food and the struggles of the homeless individuals he saw begging for money and meals.

At Beiler’s, while ordering his donuts, he was unexpectedly offered additional baked goods at no extra cost. Curious, he asked why they were giving them away, only to learn that the bakery routinely discarded day-old goods that could no longer be sold. This revelation sparked a realization: vast amounts of perfectly edible food were going to waste while so many people in the city faced food insecurity. The unfortunate irony was clear—the abundance of wasted food coexisted with the desperate need for nourishment.

This moment of awareness led Akshay to take action, ultimately inspiring the creation of Closing Time, a movement dedicated to reducing food waste and addressing hunger in local communities.

Closing time 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.