Chowberry began as “SalvageHub” a simple app that helped retail supermarkets schedule a pick-up on food items approaching the end of shelf-life by non-profits feeding hungry people.
The venture which was in prototype phase at the time won the International Telecoms Union Young Innovators Award in 2013, With prize money of $5,000 the “SalvageHub” platform was developed and renamed to “Foodring”.
An inspiring History of Chowberry foundation
Over a period of 7 years, Chowberry has evolved from an Adhoc initiative without formal incorporation to an incorporated entity with footprints and activities in the United States of America, Nigeria, Ghana, and Zambia.
Distributing over 1 million meals in total to households and individuals facing food poverty we have stayed true to our core mission and mandate – To improve access to affordable healthy nutrition for billions of food insecure individuals through innovation and enabling technologies.
2013 – 2014
Birthed in 2013, Chowberry began as an initiative that used technology to redirect food at risk of waste for orphanages and indigent communities facing hunger in Nigeria. One of our early impacts was working with an orphanage located in the heart of Abuja known as City of Refuge orphanage who received food items close to the end of shelf-life from partner retailers the organization known as Salvagehub at the time.
Activities centred on value proposition testing through research in the field, talking with retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers as well as striking early stage relationships that would be valuable as we proceed to build the final product
In 2014 the name was changed from “Salvagehub” to “Foodring”.
ITU Telecom World 2013 selects 10 Young Innovators’ Competition winners
2013 – 2014
Birthed in 2013, Chowberry began as an initiative that used technology to redirect food at risk of waste for orphanages and indigent communities facing hunger in Nigeria. One of our early impacts was working with an orphanage located in the heart of Abuja known as City of Refuge orphanage who received food items close to the end of shelf-life from partner retailers the organization known as Salvagehub at the time.
Activities centred on value proposition testing through research in the field, talking with retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers as well as striking early stage relationships that would be valuable as we proceed to build the final product
In 2014 the name was changed from “Salvagehub” to “Foodring”.
ITU Telecom World 2013 selects 10 Young Innovators’ Competition winners
2015
An upgraded version of the platform was built and a pilot with 300 users and a few stores began. The outcome from the pilot acted as input for refining the business model. One of the early pilot partners was Classic Supermarket – a retail store located in the heart of Abuja. The pilot proved successful and became our validation that the model works both in addressing the social cause of reducing food waste and addressing hunger as well as a viable business venture.
2015
An upgraded version of the platform was built and a pilot with 300 users and a few stores began. The outcome from the pilot acted as input for refining the business model. One of the early pilot partners was Classic Supermarket – a retail store located in the heart of Abuja. The pilot proved successful and became our validation that the model works both in addressing the social cause of reducing food waste and addressing hunger as well as a viable business venture.
2016
Chowberry was officially incorporated after the successful pilot and in the same year won the Rolex Award for Enterprise and with the prize money we expanded our team, scaled to multiple cities in Nigeria. By 2017 Chowberry was named in the Bill Gates supported list of Top 30 African Innovations, featured in Time Magazine in its Next Generation Leader issue and in the BBC Top 10 innovations of 2018.
Our journey has seen us begin with impacting around 10 beneficiaries, in 2013 to distributing over 1.3 Million meals to date.
We have worked with local and international organizations and companies to provide advisory and insights on corporate sustainability in the context of the Food System, these institutions and organizations include Barilla Food Company, EU, World Bank, Social Good Summit, FoodTank and more.
2016
Chowberry was officially incorporated after the successful pilot and in the same year won the Rolex Award for Enterprise and with the prize money we expanded our team, scaled to multiple cities in Nigeria. By 2017 Chowberry was named in the Bill Gates supported list of Top 30 African Innovations, featured in Time Magazine in its Next Generation Leader issue and in the BBC Top 10 innovations of 2018.
Our journey has seen us begin with impacting around 10 beneficiaries, in 2013 to distributing over 1.3 Million meals to date.
We have worked with local and international organizations and companies to provide advisory and insights on corporate sustainability in the context of the Food System, these institutions and organizations include Barilla Food Company, EU, World Bank, Social Good Summit, FoodTank and more.
Over the past week have been inundated with requests for food relief from the communities our partner non-profits work in. The lock down in major cities puts a strain on access to food for vulnerable groups who solely rely on daily pay in the informal sector to get their bread.
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