Griffith Foods has partnered with QMP, Kenya’s largest meat company, in an exciting venture to co-develop a nutritious, cost-effective sausage, with a particular emphasis on plant-based options, tailored specifically for Nairobi’s bustling street food market. This project seeks to offer a healthier and sustainable alternative to popular street foods like the traditional “Smokies” sausage, addressing the growing demand for nutritious options and environmental considerations. Griffith Foods wants to pilot nutritious low-cost meat alternatives in school feeding programs in East Africa, and has partnered with IREAD Uganda to do so. Once Tailored Food has developed nutritious low-cost food products with the Griffith team, they will be rolled out across 19 schools in Uganda, and across Nairobi, Kenya with street vendors who serve the mass market.

We are leading the design of sustainable school feeding programs rooted in smallholder farming sourcing and local business for the Incentive Learning Activity (ILA) in Liberia, led by organizations such as Mercy Corps, Save the Children, SCIDA, and EDUCARE, addressing the intergenerational cycle of low educational achievement and poverty in Liberia. By leveraging a market-based, locally led approach, ILA aims to scale proven Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programs in targeted counties, increasing enrollment, attendance, and retention while tackling food insecurity and malnutrition. Recognizing the importance of community involvement, this collaboration focuses on creating sustainable solutions and promoting long-term behavior change. The project focuses on key objectives such as local market-based HGSF models, school gardens, and addressing financial barriers to education, all while emphasizing local ownership and sustainability through partnerships and capacity-building.

Regional project to research, develop, and scale projects for UNICEF that “Improve Children’s Foods”. Tailored Food is conducting a research study across 14 countries in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESARO) region to understand existing food system dynamics and the role of current stakeholders (UN World Food Programme, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, national governments, non-profit organizations, and private sector entities), identifying where UNICEF can add the most value in bringing nutritious food to pregnant and lactating women and kids in their first 1000 days.

Together with small and medium sized local enterprises, Tailored Food works alongside the UN World Food Programme to research, develop, and produce nutritious, delicious, low-cost foods that are purchased for school feeding programs and by families directly in local markets.

In Congo, we completed a 13-day research trip and proposed a modern adaption of a classic Congolese snack, Mbala Pinda (almost like a Congolese style Clif Bar packaged in banana leaf). Once the proposal was accepted, 16 small-scale production groups, each composed of 10 female entrepreneurs were trained in central Congo with a Tailored-created training plan. From this, the nutritious Mbala Pinda product line launched in the local market, with WFP as a primary initial customer. As a result, 70,000 snack bars have been produced/month continuously over the last 4 years.

Saint Lucia has implemented school feeding programs in 81 infant and primary schools across eight education districts, and there is an ongoing pilot program in four secondary schools. These programs are funded by the government and coordinated by the Department of Education. The program is unique in its approach, emphasizing ‘decentralized school kitchens’ that involve community participation for equitable distribution of benefits, utilization of local resources, and sustainability. We have conducted the fundamental research on how to create a sustainable, smallholder farmer-focused school feeding program, and implemented it alongside the World Bank team.

Essential is a bioscience organization leveraging advances in fermentation and biomanufacturing to create affordable, accessible, and climate-resilient proteins that can be integrated into products to prevent and treat malnutrition. Tailored Food leads all product and consumer research, and is developing Essential’s go-to-market strategy.

Working on a special projects team under the Impossible Foods Founder & CEO, we worked to take Impossible Foods plant-based heme ingredient and transform it into a product that could be adapted for countries struggling with malnutrition around the world.