Seven Stanford undergraduates have launched “Tree Bites,” a new app designed to reduce food waste by alerting students to leftover food at campus events. Released on the App Store in January, the app allows event organizers to post photos and details about surplus food—such as quantity, location, and how perishable it is. Nearby students receive notifications with directions to claim the leftovers. The project began in October as part of a three-week startup challenge hosted by Affiliated Stanford Entrepreneurial Students (ASES). Amy Key ’29, Sanmay Sarada ’29, Selma Ahn ’29, and William Peng ’29 formed the core team. They were inspired by the significant amount of food wasted daily in Stanford’s dining halls, where students often overfill their trays and discard excess. However, the team realized changing individual dining habits would be difficult. Instead, they focused on food left over after club and department events. They drew inspiration from existing informal networks, such as the Stanford Buffet Response Team—a group chat where people share photos of leftover food—and a similar system used by residential assistants to distribute surplus food from dorm events. “I saw that and was like, ‘why don’t we create a centralized app?’” Key said. Aarush Garg ’29, Maia Lopin ’29, and Cash Tieman ’29 joined the effort through the Stanford Social Entrepreneurial Students’ Association (SENSA). Sarada, who had no prior experience with Swift, said about 90% of the app’s coding was done with the help of AI tools. Despite this, the development process was challenging. Frequent bugs caused by AI-generated code led to late nights and debugging sessions. “I remember pulling two all-nighters just trying to figure out what was going wrong,” Sarada recalled. Now that the app is live, the team is focused on growing its user base. Tree Bites’ Instagram has nearly 1,000 followers, and a post promoting the app on the campus forum Fizz received over 2,200 upvotes. The team is also seeking partnerships with academic departments and centers like the First-Generation and/or Low Income Student Success Center (FLISSC) to encourage consistent use. Despite enthusiasm from many students, adoption remains a challenge. Sarada shared that some peers were indifferent to food waste, with one friend saying he’d just throw leftovers away. At a BASES event, 15 pizzas were ordered for 25 people, and several boxes were tossed unopened. Still, Sarada sees hope in the campus culture. He recalled seeing a middle-aged man handing out leftovers at Coffee House, which reinforced his belief that while individual attitudes vary, departments are more committed to reducing waste. Ana San Jose Gonzalez ’26, a residential assistant, believes the app could be especially useful for hungry undergraduates. “Undergrads are somehow always hungry,” she said. Looking ahead, Tree Bites plans to expand its features, including mapping campus community fridges where students can share or access fresh food. The team also hopes to bring the app to other universities. For Key, the project aligns with her long-standing passion for using technology to create social impact. “Even in high school, I was focused on how tech could drive change,” she said. “This feels like a meaningful step forward.”