Global hunger is one of the most pressing issues facing the world today. Each day a billion people go to bed hungry, and one billion people around the world also lack safe and sanitary drinking water—two aspects of life that most people in developed countries take for granted each day.

To try to tackle this problem, a few college students created Thought for Food. TFF attempts to reconstruct the global food system and encourages people to use their brains and creativity to find the answers to world hunger. Many of these ideas center around technology, for example, offering e-credits for food waste, or creating a vertical farming system powered by an open source platform. TFF believes that innovation and collaboration between creative entrepreneurs can be the answer to food security issues, and they encourage new ideas via their annual TFF Challenge.

The Challenge is open to college students from around the world, and is composed of two rounds and five missions to be completed by participating students. The first round involves researching and conceptualizing innovative ideas. Challengers are urged to research and understand global food issues, brainstorm solutions to those issues, create and publish a project proposal, and then promote the proposal over social media outlets. Round two’s mission is to pitch the project idea. The top five finalists win $1,000 to turn their proposal into a prototype. The finalists then pitch their prototypes in an effort to win $5,000 or $10,000 of investment money to turn their ideas into a reality.

Thought for Food is an encouraging program because it urges young people around the world to become part of something bigger. It teaches that working together can sometimes yield the biggest results. And most of all, it demonstrates that working for a good cause is always rewarding.

– Katie Brockman

Sources: Forbes
Photo: Green Prophet