A passion for marine biology is why Kendra Nelson and Grace Tuthill decided to start a business selling homemade pasta in Laie. The two BYUH students began selling pasta as a way to fund an internship and trips to observe and research marine life.
Grace Tuthill, a junior from California studying marine biology, and Kendra Nelson, a senior from Arizona majoring in marine biology, started the homemade pasta business that they named Octo Pasta. They offer a couple of variations of noodle shapes, as well as infused pasta flavored with various olive oils.
“We tried to find a unique, niche area because we did notice there are a lot of cookie businesses [in the area]. We wanted to find something more unique,” said Nelson.
Tuthill said they started selling mid-semester in Fall Semester 2019 and broke even with their start-up costs within two weeks.
Tuthill shared how she plans to use some of the profits they make to finance an internship she is doing in the Bahamas for four months.
“It’s a field station in Bimini with a bunch of shark scientists,” she said. During the internship, her job will be assisting with research on lemon and hammerhead sharks. She will be a part of behavioral observations, tagging, and driving boats.
Nelson said she plans to go to Cabo, Mexico for a week-long trip observing marine life. “I’m going to Mexico to see the stingray migration ... and hopefully see some really cool shark species and killer whales. [Seeing killer whales] is the big hope for the trip.”
According to Tuthill, it was Nelson’s idea to start selling pasta and use the money for their trips. “Kendra had the idea of the company and thought this would be great to fund the trips, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I can make pasta. We can do that,’” she said.
Because of their passion for marine biology and conservation, Nelson and Tuthill said keeping their business low-waste and using as little plastic as possible is an important component of what they do.
“I think one of the goals we had when we did it is we wanted to keep it sustainable, so low plastic [and] low-waste. That was a big thing. We got the cute little cardboard containers versus the Styrofoam,” said Tuthill.
Nelson added, “[The containers] are 100 percent compostable. If you buy it, all the packaging can be composted. Even buying our materials, we keep it as low plastic as we can because we don’t want to make [pollution] worse.”
Tuthill said their pasta endeavor has gotten a good deal of support from friends and those in the community.
“We’ve posted on Facebook and gotten quite a few community members saying ‘This is awesome,’ and they ordered.”
Sam White, a senior from Texas majoring in biology, is friends with both students and said he orders their pasta every week to show his support, in addition to sharing on social media.
“For the both of them, they’re both really passionate about marine biology and conservation and ecology,” said White. “On their Instagram, I’ll see posts about saving wildlife and beach cleanups or even doing cool things like ocean trash arts and crafts.”