General Mills launched the second year of its Feeding Better Futures Scholars Program, a platform encouraging today’s youth to share their solutions to fight hunger, reduce food waste, and grow food more sustainably. Young innovators across North America are invited to submit their ideas for a chance to win $50,000 to further their program, and receive industry mentorship and exposure at the prestigious Aspen Ideas Festival.
According to recent estimates, food production will need to increase by 70 percent to feed the world’s growing population, which is projected to surpass 9 billion people by 2050.
“Feeding future generations sustainably is a complicated problem, and we recognize the need to find solutions now,” said Jeff Harmening, chairman and CEO, General Mills. “As a global food leader for over 150 years, we’re proud of our efforts to alleviate hunger and promote environmentally responsible practices across our supply chain, but we can’t solve these issues alone.”
To get involved in this year’s program, young people ages 13-21 are invited to enter the solutions they’re leading in their communities by submitting a short video or photos to www.FeedingBetterFutures.com now through February 26, 2019. General Mills will announce three program finalists in April 2019.
Finalists from last year’s General Mills Feeding Better Futures Scholars Program include:
- Katie Stagliano (Grand Prize Winner): Ten years ago, Katie, 19, started Katie’s Krops with the mission to empower youth to grow vegetable gardens and donate the harvest to help feed people in need. Today there are more than 100 Katie’s Krops gardens growing across the country.
- Jack Griffin: Jack developed an app called FoodFinder that connects families with local food pantries. To date, the app has cataloged over 25,000 food pantries in all 50 states.
- Joy Youwakim: Joy created a solution to use vacant landfill space to grow quality, nutritious produce.
- Kate Indreland: Kate worked diligently on her own ranch to implement regenerative agriculture, new processes to restore important nutrients back to the soil.
- Braeden Mannering: Braeden’s program, 3B Brae’s Brown Bags, helps homeless and low-income populations get access to healthy food and clean water through brown bag donations. He also seeks to empower other young people and has activated over 3,600 volunteers across the country.
