Allen student earns scholarship for his idea to reduce food insecurity

When Mihir Gokhale was a child and his parents took him to Mumbai, he vividly remembers beggars asking his grandmother for food scraps.

That memory led to the Allen student’s interest in tackling food insecurity on an international scale, and his work has now earned him a scholarship from Rustic Pathways, a nonprofit organization that empowers students to positively impact lives and communities around the world.

“I didn’t really have a sense of the hardship and poverty that was out there in the world. I’m really grateful to my parents for exposing me to those issues so early on,” Gokhale said during a Rustic Pathways interview. “Learning about it from 8,000 miles away is one thing, but actually being in the thick of it right there, and seeing it firsthand, is a totally different experience.”

Gokhale, a freshman at the University of Texas, is working on a website project to connect small businesses with good causes, like food donations. He hopes the project will enable business owners and donors to see the impact of their contribution.

“It’s really easy to empathize with people without fully understanding their plight, because we have food on our table every day,” Gokhale said. “I would encourage people to see for themselves if they have the opportunity. Go to places like India. Go to places like the Middle East, and even go to places within your local community because a lot of hunger issues may exist without you knowing.”