Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
It’s easy to forget what is in your fridge in a busy city like Hong Kong. A new app hopes to tackle this problem and reduce food waste.
Mazah was developed by a team of teens worldwide. One of them is 18-year-old Hongkonger Prithika Venkatesh. The app’s main feature is a tracker for users to log food they buy and its expiry date. It has personalised recipes showing what can be made with foods they have listed, as well as a map showing where users can donate extra food.
Their project received the Slingshot Challenge’s Top Honours Award earlier this month. It included a prize of US$10,000 (HK$78,026) to further their work.
Prithika, who is in her last year at Hong Kong International School, said her team chose this topic since they hope to promote sustainability and address hunger.
According to Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department, about 3,300 tonnes of food waste ended up in landfills daily in 2022. Recycling could help this issue, but Mazah hopes to prevent food waste from being created in the first place.
“We thought people needed something to push them to start,” Prithika said. “That’s where we came in.”
Inspire the next generation
Launched in 2022, the annual Slingshot Challenge invites youth aged 13 to 18 worldwide to create a one-minute video outlining their solution to an environmental issue. The awards are presented by the National Geographic Society and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
“The Slingshot Challenge represents our belief that youth are the key to unlocking new opportunities in conservation,” said Lara Littlefield, executive director of partnerships and programmes at the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
“We are confident that a global community of change-makers can ... conquer the environmental challenges that define our times.”
Looking to the future
Prithika met her teammates last summer through Kode with Klossy, a virtual coding camp for students of traditionally under-represented genders in STEM. The team has members in Switzerland and the US. Prithika is the only one in Hong Kong.
“Throughout this journey ... we experienced a lot of great collaboration despite being in different locations,” she said. “Winning one of the top awards is exciting as it recognises all the work we’ve put into Mazah.”
Prithika plans to study computer science at university, and she is grateful for what she learned while working on Mazah. “This experience has been amazing. It has provided us with a wealth of knowledge and many opportunities for growth. We’re all excited to see where this goes in the future,” she shared.
Use the puzzle below to test your knowledge of the vocabulary words in the story.
Suggested answers
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Stop and think: What are three things that users can do on the Mazah app? Users can keep track of when their purchased food expires, find recipes to make use of their items and locate places to donate extra food.
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Think about it: What is the purpose of the Slingshot Challenge? This is a yearly competition where teens propose projects that solve an environmental concern.
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Consider: How does the Mazah app hope to help the environment? It hopes to reduce the food waste that goes to landfills.
