When food goes to waste, so do opportunities to nourish communities—and Sharmila Rathinam is making sure neither is lost.
As the founder of Eat Happy Now, Sharmila has built more than a food rescue platform—she’s architected a smarter, more inclusive food system. Her technology connects small grocers, culturally specific food providers, and local businesses with surplus inventory to shelters, food banks, and housing groups—bringing dignity, transparency, and efficiency to the process.
In just over two years, Eat Happy Now has delivered over 550,000 meals, served 38,000+ food-insecure individuals weekly, and prevented 1.68 million pounds of CO₂ emissions by rescuing more than 675,000 pounds of food.
“Building hunger-free futures empowers every person can rise,” Sharmila says—a mission that echoes through every line of code and every meal delivered.
Her work goes beyond logistics. Through Eat Happy Now’s youth leadership programs, she’s training the next generation of food justice leaders—equipping students for our communities with digital tools and operational skills to lead in both tech and nonprofit sectors.
Before launching her nonprofit, Sharmila spent years at Microsoft, where she helped streamline global partner operations for Azure. She managed multimillion-dollar budgets across alliances, developed scalable systems for tracking performance, and drove efficiency with precision—experience she now channels into her social enterprise.
Sharmila’s impact is rooted in three principles: make donations effortless, empower the next generation, and partner deeply with community organizations to ensure food gets to where it’s needed most.
Her work is not only closing the hunger gap—it’s creating a blueprint for tech-powered community resilience. Through generosity, ingenuity, and inclusion, Sharmila is proving that the future of food isn’t just about what we eat—it’s about how we care.
By blending technology, community engagement, and sustainability, Sharmila is not just feeding people—she’s building a smarter, more sustainable food system for the future.
About #empowHER50 campaign
This campaign celebrates women leaders at Microsoft, past and present, who have been instrumental in democratizing access to technology, opportunity, and growth. By honoring their contributions over the last half-century, this campaign highlights stories of resilience, innovation, and inclusivity. Through digital spotlights, a commemorative coffee table book, live recognition events, and more, the campaign inspires collective action toward achieving equitable societal goals. To learn more about empowHER50, please visit https://womenincloud.com/empowHER50
To learn about Microsoft 50th celebrations: https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-50/
