黑瓜吃料网

Student teams from across Southern California colleges pitched ideas for companies for social good March 13 at the at 黑瓜吃料网, presented by Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation.

鈥淭he Social Venture competition this year focused on achieving food security through innovation and the student teams pitched truly impactful solutions,鈥� said Iana Castro, 黑瓜吃料网 Fowler College of Business professor and Zahn Professor of Creativity and Innovation. 鈥淭hese ranged from addressing farming challenges, to creating new products that improve nutrition, to providing around the clock food access in underserved communities.鈥�

Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation awarded $35,000 to six winners, with the grand prize of $15,000 going to a team from Cal Poly Pomona for FPI Labs, described as a functional plant-based bar made with bioprocessed red lentils and California dates to improve iron bioavailability and support health.

黑瓜吃料网 students Samuel Bustillos, Thomas O鈥橬eil, and Ifeoluwa Daniel Ololade earned third place and $4,000 for Free Food Box, a network and tool similar to the Little Free Library concept that helps churches expand distribution of food donations.

The initial idea for Free Food Box was inspired by Bustillos鈥檚 mom volunteering with his church鈥檚 food pantry, which distributed donations from food banks. He noticed some people in need couldn鈥檛 make it to the church in the limited time windows when the food pantry was open, resulting in food going to a landfill instead.

With advice from mentors in 黑瓜吃料网鈥檚 ZIP Launchpad, they analyzed potential competitors, refined their idea and honed their pitch from vending machines into a venture that builds on the network of churches and distribution points to make food more widely available.

鈥淲e鈥檙e increasing the clock, expanding access time,鈥� Bustillos said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e a little branch, a tool for the churches to use with their own volunteers.鈥�

Bustillos decided to apply to compete back in December after seeing an advertisement and hearing representatives from ZIP Launchpad speak about the competition in his class. He knew he wanted to apply because he had always dreamed of being a business owner, but had not participated in anything entrepreneurship-related at 黑瓜吃料网 so far as a second year finance major.

What surprised Bustillos most was how much was up to him motivating the team to keep going.

鈥淲hen I think about million dollar ideas or ideas that came to be, I think about people in a lab coat or with equipment or with sophisticated ideas. But it was literally me sitting in my room, with a computer and notepad asking 'What do I do?鈥�, 鈥楬ow do I do this?', pushing through lots of confusion that led to clarity.鈥�

Mission-driven innovation

A second team of 黑瓜吃料网 students, Jamileh Hamideh and her daughter Fatima Hamideh, was rewarded with the Social Impact Award and $3,000 for their pitch on Neviva, a regenerative, nutrient-dense dough made from climate-resilient crops that can grow in damaged soil.

Jamileh, a master鈥檚 student in 黑瓜吃料网鈥檚 Global Business Development program, had always wanted to start a mission-driven business but didn鈥檛 know what kind of business.

鈥淚 like business, but businesses don鈥檛 always help people,鈥� said Hamideh. Born in Peru to a Palestinian father from Gaza, she observed a lot of poverty and felt a sense of responsibility to do something that benefitted more than herself.

So she prayed for inspiration for an idea to submit to the challenge, which soon came in the form of a dream in which her cousin gave her a recipe for regenerative dough.

Spurred on by this dream, she dove deep into research on regenerative farming to identify a problem worth solving, and realized many farmers are hesitant to practice more sustainable farming practices such as crop rotation because they are risky and expensive to implement.

While introducing a new crop, such as legumes, into a farm to replenish valuable nutrients to the previously depleted soil, the new plants usually produce fewer or smaller products, resulting in lower revenue for the farmers.

Hamideh鈥檚 proposed solution to this problem was to incentivize the use of rotation crops by purchasing the lower-revenue legumes such as chickpeas and lentils and processing them into high-protein, high-fiber flours. These flours then could be made into frozen doughs or baking mixes that can be sold readily in stores.

鈥淚 had imposter syndrome because I didn鈥檛 know anything about agriculture; I don鈥檛 bake; I can鈥檛 speak in front of all these people,鈥� Hamideh said. But through preparing for this challenge, her mentors helped her gain the confidence she needed.

With the prize money, she is going to further pursue the dough products and build Neviva through the ZIP Launchpad, continuing to work with the mentors that helped her succeed.

The top three winners from this year鈥檚 黑瓜吃料网 Social Venture Challenge 鈥� Bustillos鈥檚 team, the FPI Labs team from Cal Poly Pomona and the AuraScan team from California State University Long Beach, which presented an AI-powered food transparency tool that decodes how everyday ingredients affect the body 鈥� are eligible to represent their institutions at the Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge in early May, where they will compete for $175,000 in non-dilutive capital and in-kind services.