Sara Menker and Gro Intelligence Are Tackling Global Hunger on a Budget of Less than $1
When local farmers, ranchers and growers talk about global hunger, they are often speaking of extreme deprivation brought on by global poverty, a reality that many people don’t realize exists. Sara Menker and Gro Intelligence are trying to change that.
Sara Menker and Gro Intelligence are dedicated to eliminating hunger and poverty from the world by funding small businesses in rural areas to produce, distribute and sell food directly to those who need it most. To do this, they use a clever approach: they partner with small food producers who can produce products that can help fill the gap left behind by global trade. These small companies can then partner with larger companies to sell these products to the world.
According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, the world will face a shortage of nearly $4.7 trillion in food supplies by the end of the decade. This shortage is estimated to be the result of increased global trade and decreased global production. The UN estimates that in the U.S. alone, 3.3 billion people will experience hunger in 2018. With global trade expected to continue to increase, this problem will only get worse.
Small-scale food production isn’t the only solution to this problem. But it is one worth looking into especially because of the economic ramifications of global hunger. With a growing global population, and with many people choosing the lifestyle of not having a stable job or a retirement, it is easy to see why large corporations are not interested in expanding their supply chains to meet the needs of this growing number of consumers.
In 2017, Sara Menker and Gro Intelligence completed a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $5,000 to help fund their first business, Gro Intelligence, a new breed of local food business that specializes in growing food for those who are suffering from global hunger.
Their small-scale food production is helping to fill the gap left by global trade, an idea that they took from their own family. Menker’s family has been
