Bountifield Wins 2021 International Innovation Award
[Minneapolis, MN] – Bountifield International is pleased to announce that they have been named a co-winner for the category of Innovations that Empower Youth in Agriculture and Food Systems for the 2021 International Innovation Award for Sustainable Food Systems from The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Federal Government of Switzerland.
Bountifield was recognized for their work in offering young people in rural areas new opportunities as postharvest technology entrepreneurs providing a fee-for-service to farmers to process, preserve and sell their crops. Bountifield’s ‘business in a box’ model equips them with needed technology, access to financing and information they need to drive agribusiness value addition, to reduce food loss, and to increase growth across rural Africa.
“It is an honor for Bountifield to be recognized for our work with women’s groups and youth entrepreneurs in creating more resilient and sustainable food systems,” said Alexandra Spieldoch, CEO of Bountifield International. “This award allows us to build more visibility internationally for our model as we continue to grow and expand our work to reach more smallholder communities in Africa.”
The awards were launched in 2018 to encourage innovation through public recognition of best practices in the field of sustainable food and agriculture and to promote the potential for innovation to support food system transformation, particularly for smallholder farmers. The awards included two categories including the main Digitalization and Innovation for Sustainable Food Systems, plus the Innovations that Empower Youth in Agriculture and Food Systems, of which Bountifield was a co-winner alongside the nonprofit Access Agriculture AISBL.
The awards were announced in a virtual ceremony on Friday, October 1, 2021, as part of the first day of the flagship event from the World Food Forum. The ceremony included the participation of FAO Director-General QU Dongyu and Christian Hofer, Director-General of the Federal Office for Agriculture of Switzerland.
To learn more about the awards, visit http://www.fao.org/innovation/awards/en/
Bountifield media contact: Stevie Kloeber, stevie@Bountifield.org, 651-632-3912