Supported projects

UNICEF promotes children’s right to healthier and adequate nutrition. Due to a dramatic increase in overweight and obese children globally, but especially in East Asia Pacific, UNICEF aims to reshape urban food retail environments. Together with academic institutes and government ministries we want to translate evidence into policies to encourage healthier purchasing and consumption behavior.

Gastromotiva provides vocational culinary and food entrepreneur training for low-income young adults from the cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Curitiba in Brazil. The NGO also introduces community kitchens and offering take away meals for extremely vulnerable families, following a social gastronomy model that involves reducing food waste while improving food sustainability and reducing food insecurity.

Haligi ng Bata, Inc (HBI) helps vulnerable communities in the Philippines. Its “Adopt a School” and “Good Nutrition” projects offer educational, financial, medical and nutritional support to parents, pupils and teachers at the most disadvantaged schools, in particular by giving children access to education and a balanced diet. Inadequate nutrition leads to absenteeism and problems concentrating, especially when coupled with a level of poverty that prevents schools and communities from meeting children’s needs. These programmes boost family incomes, provide access to basic healthcare, improve scholastic outcomes and reduce child malnutrition.

Through their Mentor Mother Programme, Philani runs community based maternal and child health activities, including the rehabilitation of malnourished children, for families who are in situations of extreme vulnerability. Philani aims to improve the physical and cognitive development of children, to decrease morbidity rates and in the long term, intergenerational poverty.

SoyDoy promotes education and nutrition for children and members of their communities in the suburbs of Bogotá, Colombia. In addition, SoyDoy supports and sets up microenterprises for mothers, so that they can support their families, achieve food security and obtain a sustainable income. SoyDoy provides the mothers with the financial resources, basic materials and guidance they need to create their own sustainable enterprises. The SoyDoy model becomes even more important in emergency situations such as the Covid-19 crisis, because it enables members of the community to produce local, sustainable food for their families and neighbours.

Through its Seeds of Hope project, Fondazione Italia Uganda aims to address the problems of hunger and food insecurity – which have only worsened during the Covid-19 emergency – in some of the most disadvantaged urban slums of Kampala, Uganda, where 70% of the poorest people eat only one meal a day, the prices of basic food and water keep rising and casual workers are finding it harder to make a living. Working directly with families, Fondazione Italia Uganda provides training in urban farming and helps households develop their own urban gardens. It also improves access to water and assists communities with building resilience using their own local resources and solutions.

Grow NYC is an organisation based in New York whose mission is to improve New York City's quality of life through environmental programmes that transform communities block by block and empower all New Yorkers to secure a clean and healthy environment for future generations. NYC's most under-served and vulnerable communities often have one thing in common – a lack of open green space. Accessible green space is vital to help neighbourhoods thrive. Community gardens function as educational destinations and neighbourhood hubs, while giving local youngsters and their families the opportunity to grow their own healthy food.

Food 4 Education is a social enterprise whose mission is to ensure that no child has to learn while hungry. Chronic and acute under-nutrition and micronutrient deficiencies continue to be a persistent critical issue in many regions of Africa owing to low food production and broken food systems. In Kenya, Food for Education leverages community, parent and government partnerships at scale to expand national school feeding programmes. Led by African women, Food for Education uses technology and smart supply chains to source fresh, nutritious and local ingredients from smallholder farmers, while simplifying distribution and enabling parent and community participation to bring high-quality daily meals to children with the aim of improving their health and educational outcomes.