Ahmad is  the founder of Copia, which she  describers  as "match com meets Uber for food  recovery." Conipanies use the Copia app to report when they have leftover food,what kind, and how much . When recipients   such as shelters, soup kitchens , and agencies first register  with Cupia, they indicate how many people they need to feed,on what days , and what kind of  food  they'll take. Cupia  makes a  profit from the fees that companies  pay to remove  leftever food; the companies  receive  a  tax write-off for their food donations. How did Ahmad   create  Copia? Aa a senior at UC Berkeley, the found nearly 50 million   Americans   are at  risk of going  hungry every day, white more than  133 billion pounds  ofeatable foud are deserted  each  year. Ahma d started  a  student group that  recovered   food  from  the  campus and  distributed   it Lo local nonprofits. As rewarding   as this was,the  inefficiencies   bothered  her. One day , she   got  a  call from the dining hall manager, who  had 500   sandwiches  left over from m event. She rented a car,loaded it with the food, and called nonprofits, She found takers for only 25 sandwiches and ended up giving out the rest eU a nearby park. "I remember thinking how cool it would be if people who had food could say,  'Hey, we  have stuff, ' and people who needed it could  speak up, and then  we could connect  the two. " After she graduated  , Ahmad  launched Copia carlier this year, it operates in 40 cities in Northem California and has served over 700,000 people. Its biggest success--and challenge-- 10 date was this past Super Bowl: Copia recovered muro than 14 tons of food, which fed more  than  23,000 people. Despite her busy schedule, Ahmad  tries to do me food pickup a week."When you get to theshelter,"she  says ," If you wouldn't  have eaten." And that's when I'm   like, ' This is why I do  what I do.' What made  Ahmad create the app?
Too much food is wasted. Too many people go hungry. Her group's work is rewarding. Her group's work doesn 't   go well.