Everyday Greatness: Maria Rose Belding

Her high-tech innovation is helping feed the hungry

- Evan Miller

Who she is Maria Rose Belding, 24, co-launched and runs MEANS, an online platform connecting businesses that have surplus food with pantries and soup kitchens that need it. MEANS stands for Matching Excess and Need for Stability, a name Maria Rose came up with as a teenager while volunteering in her Pella, Iowa, church’s food pantry. She graduated from American University in May 2019 and plans to go to med school.

What she does Maria Rose had seen firsthand the difficulties that pantries have connecting with food donors. Many pantries lack landlines or listed phone numbers.