SDG #2: Young Entrepreneurs are Key to Feeding the World

by Matthew Smith, Director of Food for Good, a purpose-driven business initiative of PepsiCo
Apr 14, 2016 10:00 AM ET

SDG #2: Young Entrepreneurs Are Key to Feeding the World

Building a stronger and more equitable food system requires the fresh thinking, talents, and skills of our youth. We have the potential to feed everyone, including the millions of people globally who are most vulnerable to hunger and its serious consequences. Having worked for one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies for more than a decade, I know that the next generation of farmers, business managers, NGOs, public advocates, and students can together help us reach the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goal aimed at ending hunger (SDG 2).

Many bright young minds all over the world, including those at the recent Youth Assembly at the United Nations, have taken bold steps to improve the food system and reach those in need. In the U.S., for example, 18-year-old Brittany Amano is helping the nearly one in five American youth struggling with hunger by leading The Future Isn’t Hungry, an organization of more than 450 young volunteers across three different states that collects and distributes food. Brittany, who herself struggled to stay full and healthy as she grew up, founded the organization in her hometown in Hawaii when she was only twelve. Then there’s 12-year-old Braeden Mannering, a recent attendee at the White House Kids State Dinner who launched 3B Brae’s Brown Bags to help homeless and low-income individuals in in his home state of Delaware access healthy snacks and water.

Read on to learn how Food for Good, a PepsiCo initiative, is tackling child hunger here.