Reharvested Plus
Circular post-harvest crop management and farm product redistribution model to minimize food waste in the supply chain, while mitigating the incidence of malnutrition in children within the first five years of age.
For the children in the region of Kisumu, the capital of Nyanza province in Kenya, one of the solutions is to sell still fresh and unsold food at subsidized prices in settings that will benefit people, including students and those facing nutrition gaps.
Project Coordinator
Jackline Awino Ochiel is a public health biostatistician and epidemiologist, and scholar from the Research Methods Program at the Leaders of Africa Institute. In her hometown of Kisumu, Kenya, she observed that much food goes to waste and is unsold by vendors. Her data investigation lead her to examine how food systems can be improved to avoid food waste while enhancing the equitable distribution of food resources.
Operational model
The food products will be selected at different points of the supply chain before they are wasted, then sorted and combined for better nutritional effectiveness, and finally distributed to homes with children in the first five years of age.
Cold freezer spaces - poor storage is a one of the contributors to food waste, We aim to provide solar powered cold freezer spaces within the local markets at a subsidized price.
Better storage of perishable food products will reduce the amount of food that ends up into landfills
Market Linkages - Having the connection with the demand side we aim to connect the supply and demand side whenever applicable to reduce incidences of food waste
Proper management food loss in the supply chain will reduce the incidence of malnutrition and improve food security
Additional nutrition action - create an enriched flour which can be distributed to ECD centers and scaled to the public. This fortification is based on organic bio-dynamic and sustainable methods, without synthetic supplements.
Problem A + problem B = solution C
when two problems overlap, they create the opportunity for systemic solutions
Problem A.
Food waste remains to be a major hindrance to achieving a sustainable food security system. A lot of food ends up in landfills due to pitfalls along the food supply chain. To attain food security, many efforts have been geared towards food production to increase food availability and accessibility. Nonetheless, there is little attention to what happens to food post-harvest. The wasting during logistics and lack of proper storage facilities causes economic losses for all those who participate in the value chain.
Problem B.
Prolonged incidence of food lost to waste has greatly contributed to undernutrition, especially in low- and mid-income countries. This is because waste creates scarcity and makes food less accessible for the less priviledged. In Kenya, malnutrition is a major public health challenge, it negatively affects the achievement of sustainable development goals, in particular SDG2 and SDG12. The impact is greater for children in early development age, from birth to five years old.
C: Systemic Solution:
Food redistribution - redistribute food to the vulnerable groups most likely to go without food to help save on food that would otherwise end into landfills. Supply chain actors will have lower financial losses and communities have better access to food.
Food Fortification - develop a database of malnourished children under 5 years from local dispensaries, to them We will offer blended fruits and vegetable combinations to improve on their nutrition.
Special thanks to AlterContacts Volunteer Expert
"Thank you for connecting me with Nikolas, With his guidance I have been able to make significant strides towards actualizing the goal to save food in a more practical and sustainable way. Nikolas has been very instrumental and I have learnt so much from him am determined to ensure that this dream is actualized. Thank you!"
Jackline Ochiel
Update 27 of May 2023 by Jackline: With the help of Nikolas We did a feasibility study which pointed out that it would be expensive and not scalable because of the cost implications. So in place of that he suggested we try out food preservation using canned soups which we are in the process of testing to see if it will work.