Ganoderma lucidum, apricot and abalone mushrooms grow on coffee grounds

"one cup of coffee a day" has become a habit of more and more young people. Can the leftover coffee grounds be turned into a treasure? A survey of college students from the Entrepreneurship Center of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics found that coffee grounds contain the cellulose needed for mushroom growth and can be used to cultivate fungi. They not only developed culturable mushroom bags, but also gave them away to low-income people for free, helping them generate an average income of 520 yuan a month. Since then, more ideas such as "fruit and vegetable workshop" and "affection and mutual benefit" have jumped into the minds of community members, and public entrepreneurship projects have gradually become a characteristic activity of the Entrepreneurship Center of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. College students not only do public welfare projects to help vulnerable groups out, but also gain entrepreneurial and business experience.

Research and development of mushroom cultivation package

According to statistics, 400 million cups of coffee are consumed in Shanghai every year, resulting in 7984 tons of discarded coffee grounds. "if we can find the recycling of useful ingredients in coffee grounds, it can not only reduce waste and pollution, but also create benefits. Isn't that a good business plan?" In a discussion, a member put forward such an idea.

Members of the Entrepreneurship Center found that coffee grounds are also treasures, including not only the cellulose needed for mushroom growth, but also caffeine can promote plant growth. In addition, coffee grounds is also a heavy metal absorbent, which can absorb peculiar smell and so on.

Based on this, the members contacted the technicians of the mushroom plantation to develop a mushroom cultivation package. Xu Yiwei, deputy director of the Entrepreneurship Center, told reporters: "if you put the cultivation bag in a relatively constant temperature space and spray water outside the plastic film four or five times a day, many kinds of mushrooms such as Ganoderma lucidum, Pleurotus ostreatus, Pleurotus eryngii, and hericium Erinaceus can grow." Members contacted more than 30 coffee shops in Shanghai, set up a recycling mechanism, collected them two or three times a week, and put coffee grounds directly into aseptic bags. It also gave the project a poetic name: "Coffee Green Plant".

More significantly, members distributed mushroom bags free of charge to more than 80 low-income families in four communities in Yangpu District and taught them cultivation skills. By cultivating mushrooms, these families increased their income by an average of 520 yuan per month. If the project is extended to rural areas, it is estimated that 100 low-income households in Shanghai urban areas and 40 rural households in suburban counties will benefit. The project overall reduces the waste of coffee grounds by 15 tons and enables more than 7000 people to buy agricultural products grown from coffee grounds.

Last year, the Entrepreneurship Center won the overall championship of the Chinese Division of the 2013 World Cup with the "Coffee Green Plant" project, and went to Mexico in October last year to participate in the Enactus World Cup and finally won the top six.

Public welfare projects continue to emerge.

Chen Qixin, the current president of the Entrepreneurship Center and a junior majoring in financial management, told reporters that the "project responsibility system" is a characteristic organizational model of the entrepreneurial center, and many good entrepreneurial projects are born in the brainstorming of members. The success of the "Coffee Green Plant" project has further strengthened Chen Qixin's confidence in setting up a project team management model, and the ideas and enthusiasm of community members have been activated. "Mutual benefit" and "Fruit and vegetable Workshop". More similar commonweal commercial projects have emerged.

A member of the club learned from the news that the oranges in Chongming were unsalable. "can you help these orange farmers?" As soon as the question was raised, Chuangzhong members began to run one after another to give full play to their professional advantages, some to Chongming for research, and some to conduct market research. It was found that urban white-collar workers had the highest acceptance of orange juice, ice cream and orange chips, which found a market for unsalable oranges. Xu Yiwei recalled that members often went back and forth between Chongming and the urban area, helping orange farmers find processing points, and finally opened up the entire industrial chain after finding the sales direction of downstream products, so that the project could continue.

In view of the crisis of the loss of traditional culture and skills, members set up "affectionate and mutually beneficial" programs to find traditional craftsmen such as crochet technology and palm leaf weaving in Fengxian, Songjiang and other places. It is hoped that they will set up lectures and training courses in schools for the children of migrant workers, public libraries and other places, on the one hand, to find inheritors for craft weaving, but also to enrich students' extracurricular life.

Chen Qixin said with a smile, "there are seven or eight public entrepreneurship projects like this every semester, and the winter and summer vacation is the most important period for promoting the project."

"hitting a nail" has become a habit.

College students who have not yet come out of school are already familiar with the business of shopping malls, which makes many teachers give a thumbs-up to the entrepreneurship center. The good results of the top six of the Enactus World Cup in 2013 have made the Entrepreneurship Center famous among colleges and universities in Shanghai. Behind these honors, the members of the Entrepreneurship Center are very calm: many difficulties have been encountered in the implementation of each project, and it has become a habit to "hit a nail". Instead, they feel uneasy.

Chen Qixin told reporters that, for example, when introducing free mushroom bags to residents during the "Coffee Green Plant" activity, most people did not accept it out of precaution. Members had to set up stalls in the community to distribute mushroom bags free of charge before they could enter the house. in the "Fruit and vegetable Workshop" project, after the processing factory asked college students to help find a market for processed products, they agreed to help orange farmers solve their unsalable products. In the "affection and Mutual benefit" project, craftsmen are generally older, and college students act as the first batch of volunteers to learn traditional crafts and then teach in schools for the children of migrant workers.

It is in the process of implementing each project that the students of the Entrepreneurship Center not only accumulate entrepreneurial experience, but also develop a strong heart. With his experience in the Entrepreneurship Center, Xu Yiwei, who is facing employment this year, has become the target of competition among famous enterprises.

The Entrepreneurship Center is exactly 10 years old this year. "A business school student should not only have a business mind, but also have a heart for public welfare. We should transform ourselves with our own experience and change the world with our knowledge. " Chen Qixin said at the ceremony for new members to join the club.