UC Davis recently held the Big Bang! Business Competition final and award ceremony at the UC Davis Conference Center, according to a press release from the school. Contestants pitched their companies to the audience before the awards were distributed at the event. Food-centric startups made a strong showing at the competition, with first and second prize going to startups focused on food as well as a number of other bonus prizes.
Scrumpt, a startup that sends cheap, healthy lunches and nutritious snacks to elementary school students through the mail, took the $10,000 first place award at the competition. Scrumpt was created with the help of Schery Mitchell-James, MD, a pediatrician and assistant professor of pediatrics at UC Davis. They have successfully launched pilot programs in the United States and plan on expanding their focus beyond young children to others who may have a difficult time getting out of the house and buying healthy food, like senior citizens.
Foodful.ly took home the $5,000 second place prize for their web-based service and mobile app that tries to address the most common catalyst of food waste in the home: forgetting purchased foods and not knowing how to cook them. The Foodful.ly team believes that reducing commonplace food waste in the home is the key to saving families money as well as improving sustainability by changing the way we use the foods we produce. The team also took home the $2,500 CleanTech award and the $4,000 Mobile Apps for Societal Impact Award at the competition.