A Cuenca Student Is Turning Food Waste Into Help for 60 Families
Cuenca Expat Staff
A Cuenca student is turning food that might have been wasted into weekly food kits for local families.
Carolina Novillo, a 19-year-old International Studies student at the University of Azuay, won Project Green Challenge with a project called Save & Share.
The competition was organized by Turning Green and brought together more than 7,000 students from 128 countries. Carolina was selected among 14 finalists and had five months to develop and implement her idea.
How Save & Share Works
The project rescues food that is still fit for consumption, sorts it, and turns it into aid kits for Cuenca families with limited economic resources.
The kits weigh about 10 kilograms and include items such as legumes, fruit, noodles, and other basic foods.
They are distributed every Wednesday and have already reached areas including Miraflores and Barabon, helping about 60 families so far.
Why This Is A Good Cuenca Story
Food waste is usually talked about as an abstract sustainability problem. This project makes it very concrete: edible food gets recovered, organized, and handed to families who can use it.
Carolina built partnerships with food banks, foundations, volunteer groups, and local companies to make it work.
She was the first Ecuadorian student to participate in the competition and the first to win it. Now the bigger question is whether Save & Share can grow beyond the first 60 families and become a stable community pipeline in Cuenca and Azuay.
