Meet 3 Youth-Led Social Enterprises Transforming Food Systems

By Jens Christian Trier, COO at We Make Change

Today is International Youth Day. It focuses on issues related to youth and celebrates the potential youth has to help improve global society. The idea was proposed in 1991, but it was not until the 54th session of the United Nations General Assembly that it was put into a resolution (A/RES/54/120: Policies and programmes involving youth, 17 December 1999) and 12 August named to be the International Youth Day. The very first International Youth Day thus took place on 12 August 2000.

The 2021 International Youth Day theme revolves around the transformation of food systems using innovation for human and planetary health. According to the United Nations, the global population is expected to grow by more than 2 billion in the next 30 years meaning that producing a larger volume of healthy food more sustainably will not guarantee human and planetary wellbeing. Challenges related to food systems also touch upon other vital points in the 2030 Agenda, such as poverty reduction; social inclusion; health care; biodiversity conservation; and climate change mitigation.

For the 2021 International Youth Day, we would like to highlight the founders of 3 Youth-Led Social Enterprises who we’ve had the pleasure of supporting at We Make Change and who are all working on innovations related to food systems.

Adrian Weisensee & Andreas Schlueter, Co-Founders of Flamingoo Foods

Adrian and Andreas founded Flamingo Foods in 2014. The challenge that they want to address is the fact that in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1 in 3 children and 1 in 5 adults still suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Malnutrition can even lead to irreversible brain damages for children. The problem is triggered by the high volatility of food prices that are mainly influenced by the extent of rainfall. Climate change will lead to more adverse weather conditions that might worsen food price volatility and hunger.

By using machine learning of satellite and weather data, Flamingoo Foods anticipate regions of staple food surplus and deficit in East/Southern Africa ahead of observance. This helps them to adjust their supply chain agilely and deliver food to the regions that are most in need of it. Weisensee and Schlueter and Andreas expect to have a significant impact in reducing hunger and increasing food price stability by increasing the resilience of the food supply chains.

But how come two Germans decided to start a project in Africa? Adrian, who currently lives in Tanzania, explains “When I was 16 years old, I spent one year in Africa attending school in a South African township. Since then, my desire to use my skills to fight unemployment and hunger was ever growing. At the same time, I believe that Africa has great potential to become an important food producer for the world.”

Andreas has a similar experience and adds “After high school, I lived with rural smallholders in the global south and saw their needs with my own eyes.” Like Adrian, Andreas also considered how he could use his skills and contribute to end global hunger. He explains “As a consequence, I have devoted my entire academic and professional career to this call. As CTO, I am responsible for the tech-part at Flamingoo Foods. Having a PhD in African rainfall forecasting, I monitor satellite images and weather forecasts to timely adjust our food supply chain. Currently, I am researching novel crop yield forecasts at Stanford University using AI methods.”

Taylor Quinn, Founder of Tailored Food

Tailored Food was founded in 2019 by Taylor Quinn. It is a lean Social Enterprise consultancy dedicated to building holistic food systems in countries most affected by malnutrition, such as Liberia, China, the United States of America and Congo. Tailored Food builds coalitions of local entrepreneurs, farmers, industrial manufacturers and multilateral development institutions to bring food products to people living in poverty. Their collective mission is to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 through nutritious, delicious, food that families can find and purchase in their local markets. The business has sold food for 34 months in Liberia.

On how Taylor came to found a social enterprise focused on food and his motivations, he explains “In 2016 a pediatrician in Liberia explained to me how children were dying of malnutrition because non-profit interventions were focused on reactive solutions once a child was sick, and that nutritious low-cost food was not available in local markets. I became obsessed with doing something to solve this problem.”

He continues to explain how this obsession came to be a life mission. “My life is dedicated to learning how the world eats and doing everything I can to make it better. I am on a mission to build sustainable food systems that provide nutritious, delicious, culturally relevant food products at a price that families in extreme poverty can afford.”

Taylor is always looking for skilled individuals who want to help him end hunger by 2030. If you have skills and want to use them to make a difference, you can apply to join Taylor and Tailored Food here. If you are curious to learn more about what volunteering for Tailored Food means you can read about Emma and Laura’s experience here.

Ariana Day Yuen, Founder of Forested Foods

Deforestation is an increasing issue, notably in developing regions. It causes land degradation, soil erosion, polluted water, carbon emissions, and jeopardizes all life. Native forest loss is especially detrimental to the world’s two billion smallholder farming community members as it exacerbates the negative effects of climate change that affect their agricultural yields and ultimately, incomes. Meanwhile, forests continue to be threatened by forest-based communities, whose quicker gains of selling timber or clearing land for micro-monoculture agriculture outweigh current opportunities to sustainably cultivate and market forest-based products.

Forested Foods was founded in 2019 by Ariana Day Yuen. They combat deforestation by working with forest-based farmers to realize increased incomes from conservation-based agroforestry. In practice, we’re a vertically integrated agroforestry company that creates end-to-end supply chains of premium forest products (e.g. spices, gums/resins, fruits, honey). Operating in the field, we work with farmers living in forest edges (starting in Ethiopia) to sustainably cultivate agricultural products that grow in forests to promote soil health and biodiversity. The company then purchases these products from farmers and processes (i.e. adds value to them) in-country. Finally, we bring these products to market – under both our own brand(s) and bulk wholesale.

Ariana is originally from Hong Kong, but moved to the United States to attend Syracuse University. Here she triple-majored in Advertising Communications, Entrepreneurship and Economics. Recently she received her MBA from Yale’s School of Management with a focus on courses from Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Ariana worked as a management consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton, then for TechnoServe as a Fellow at their Ethiopia office. Ariana’s passion for sustainable and delicious food, sense of responsibility to overcome societal issues combined with her professional experience led her to found Forested Foods.

If you are passionate about combating deforestation and promoting sustainable work from conservation-based agroforestry, you can apply to use your skills to volunteer for Forested Foods and help them grow their impact!

Youth are playing a vital role in transforming the world for the better. They are the first generation that can end poverty, but the last that can address climate change. Current food-systems need to become more sustainable for humanity to thrive on a changing planet. Equal distribution and access to affordable food is essential for youth to get out of poverty and into sustainable work. Youth innovation through social entrepreneurship can help accelerate change in the world on multiple fronts within the 2030 Agenda.

Make a change!

Today is a day dedicated to youth across the world. This issue is still pressing and we hope Bimo, Riitta and Selorm can serve as role models for individuals who want to make a difference for our planet.

How can you make a difference?

If you are starting up — or running — your own Social Enterprise or NGO, you can get volunteers with the skills you need to grow your impact for free here.

If you have skills that you want to volunteer to make sustainable change in the world, you can join a project here. Together, we can make the world more sustainable!