In his pre-junior year, Evan Ehlers, one of the first matriculated members of Drexel’s Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship’s inaugural class, experienced something that changed his life so profoundly that he was inspired to take the knowledge he’d learned in class and the experience he gained on co-op to form his own socially charitable startup.
In an effort to use up meal swipes that were about to expire, he went to the dining hall and swiped his card until he couldn’t swipe it anymore. He then took all those meals, piled them up in his car and drove around the city giving the containers of food out to people who needed it. He soon realized he could do this every day — and on a bigger scale, and with more students involved, to help even more people. That realization led Ehlers in 2016 to found Sharing Excess, a standardized donation program that allows students to donate excess meal swipes to community members in need. In April 2018, the company also found a home at the Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship, a startup incubator in the Close School.
“I couldn’t think of a better thing to get up for in the morning,” says Ehlers.
Ehlers and Sharing Excess were named one of the winners at The Philadelphia Inquirer’s 2018 Stellar StartUps Competition.