Sharmila Rathinam - Founder
Sharmila is a dynamic, accomplished leader and a social entrepreneur, who founded Eat happy, a Nonprofit organization. Eat Happy’s mission is to tackle food waste and hunger by leveraging innovative technology. Helping those less fortunate has always been her passion, hence being actively involved with non-profits like Upaya, Pratham, and Indian American Community Services, by serving on some of their boards and volunteering her time to advance their cause. Her deep-rooted desire to make a difference in the food space, coupled with her passion for giving back to the community, inspired her to launch Eat Happy. Her vision aligns with her mission of fostering unity and compassion through food
With over 20 years of experience in business and financial management in top tier companies like Microsoft, Ernst & Young and Anderson Consulting, she brings a wealth of expertise and strategic thinking to her social impact work and philanthropic endeavors.
Beyond her professional accomplishments, She is an avid hiker and traveler, exploring new cultures and cuisines wherever she goes. As a true gastronome, she experiments with fusing food from different regions, embodying her philosophy of bringing people together through the universal language of food.
Sunita Shastri - Co-Founder
Sunita Shastri brings a wealth of knowledge from the food industry as an entrepreneur who successfully built and sold a food company. She is a strong business leader with 15+ years of experience running small businesses and helping others in their journey of entrepreneurship by mentoring and supporting women in their journey. She is a chef with teaching experience and passionate about food and believes that everyone should have access to healthy and nutritional meals which is why she joined Eat Happy to rescue and recover food and deliver it to those who need it.
Over the last 10 years, Sunita has been involved in volunteering with various nonprofits in different capacities. She serves on the board of Hopelink(a large human services nonprofit based in Redmond WA), and The Sophia Way (a women’s shelter based in Bellevue, WA. She serves as an advisory board member of Essentials First, a nonprofit in Bellevue, WA providing essential items including hygiene products to families in need.
Along with joining as a co-founder of Eat Happy, she is also a board member committed to help solve the disconnect between food availability and food insecurity seen in communities around her. In her spare time, Sunita enjoys travelling, playing tennis, and photography.
Graduate of Project Lead Board Leadership Program, United Way of King County, Seattle WA.
MBA in Finance from City University, Seattle WA.
Shada Al-Nasser - Board Member, Vice Chair
Shada Al-Nasser brings her unwavering commitment to positive change and a wealth of leadership experience to her role as Board Vice Chair at Eat Happy Now. With a background in program and product management, Shada has honed her ability to drive impactful initiatives, and she now channels that expertise into making a difference within her community.
Throughout her career, Shada has navigated complex challenges, always seeking innovative solutions. Her tenure as a Principal Product Manager at Microsoft, where she oversaw global projects, prepared her to lead and inspire teams, making her an ideal advocate for Eat Happy Now’s mission.
Beyond her corporate accomplishments, Shada is deeply passionate about social impact, women’s empowerment, and self-discovery. As a Council Member on Vital Voices Global Partners NW, she has contributed to women’s empowerment on a global scale. At East Happy Now, she’s determined to harness the power of community and collaboration to drive meaningful change.
Shada approaches every endeavor with a growth mindset, data-driven analysis, and a dedication to fostering talent. In her free time, you can often find her practicing yoga, embracing wellness, and staying active through her passion for fitness. She believes that a balanced mind and body are essential for personal and societal well-being.
Madonna Messina Development Lead
Madonna is a “purposeful socialite”. She attracts genuine and reliable friends who enjoy giving back. Madonna provides introductions to new volunteers and links Eat Happy with other partner organizations, including Bellevue LifeSpring.
Madonna combines her background in outside sales and participation in numerous volunteer roles to cultivate community. She (and her children) founded a service organization for youth (Serving Our Society), has led various auction committees, created new programs within the Issaquah School District, Co-chaired One Circle and, from her new base in San Diego, will help Eat Happy with expansion efforts.
Archana Verma - Community Ambassador, Social outreach and Grant writing.
Archana developed a passion for community service and philanthropy while observing extreme lack of privilege in many patients visiting the medical clinic of her Dad, in a small town in India.
While raising her own family, as an adult in USA, Archana started volunteering in local public schools after quitting a 10 year corporate career as a software engineer. After more than a decade of volunteering in local schools, Archana was invited to join the board of her local public school foundation as the first Indian American Trustee.
Archana is a foodie who is passionate about healthy global cuisine. After quitting her Engineering career, she dabbled in the food industry as a culinary instructor for 8 years, in a Pacific northwest based culinary school.
Archana volunteers in her local school district to help underprivileged kids apply to colleges.
Archana volunteers at a local senior center as well as at a local meditation organization as a volunteer cook for meditation retreats.
Archana is passionate about and committed to Eat Happy Now’s mission to rescue food.
Dipika Matthias
Board MembeR
Dipika Matthias is a global health and nutrition executive with 20+ years of experience across the sectors to develop and scale innovations for humanitarian impact. Dipika was formerly a Deputy Director on the Nutrition team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), leading their investment portfolio in nutrition product innovations. Prior to BMGF, she was on the executive team of a social enterprise start-up that upcycled by-product from coffee milling operations into a food ingredient for worldwide markets. Earlier in her career, Dipika worked at PATH, a global health NGO, where amongst several leadership roles she directed a global rice fortification program to advance the technology, clinical evidence base, policies, and markets for fortified rice, a product that is now reaching hundreds of millions of nutritionally at-risk consumes with critically needed micronutrients. Dipika is passionate about bringing together NGOs, governments, the private sector, and funders to leverage their respective strengths in advancing social causes.
