Fighting Food Insecurity With Food Banks

As images of hungry and malnourished children in northern and eastern Uganda flickered across the screen, the pair began to think about how they might contribute to fighting food insecurity in some of the hardest-hit communities. By the end of the evening’s broadcast, Ephrance and Pauline had created Prawji-Mama Food Bank, aimed at storing food for the community in order to use it later when there is a shortage.

A March 2016 report released by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations showed that between 70 and 80 percent of Ugandan children are malnourished, their growth stunted. In a population of over 40 million Ugandans, four million experience food insecurity.

“In Karamoja, you might find a 10-year-old child looking like a five-year-old. To make it worse, 25 percent of stunted children are from northeastern and northern Uganda,” explained Ephrance. “That’s why we decided to locate Prawji-Mama Food Bank in northern and later eastern Uganda—because that’s where the biggest problem is.”

The two young women are students at Arizona State University in the United States, where they are studying biomedical informatics and accounting, respectively, with support from the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, a scholarship dedicated to young change-makers chosen specifically because of their academic talent, social consciousness, and leadership qualities.

Prawji-Mama won The Resolution Social Venture Challengeat the Mastercard Foundation Baobab Summit in Johannesburg in 2017, a competition that rewards compelling leadership and promising social ventures led by youth. These young leaders earned a fellowship that includes seed funding, mentorship, and access to a network of young global change-makers to pursue impactful projects in their communities.

A collaboration between the Mastercard Foundation and The Resolution Project, the Resolution Social Venture Challenge provides a pathway to action for socially responsible young leaders who want to create change that matters in their communities.

Wanting to know why a region with enough rain and fertile soil faced food shortages, Ephrance and Pauline found that crop spoilage was a major cause of hunger. As farmers face a lack of safe storage for crops, they are forced to sell their produce immediately, and often for a lower price. Yet, if well stored, the food could even serve areas affected by severe droughts.

Farmers also lack access to market information about prices, creating opportunities for middlemen to exploit them by offering them lower prices. Instead of buying a kilogram of maize at 1000 Ugandan shillings, for example, they will give a farmer around 200 shillings.

“We are sensitizing farmers about storing food to help them improve their income and their lives. They might have children in school, and a family to take care of,” explained Pauline.

Prawji-Mama Food Bank will ensure that costs are affordable for smallholder farmers. For a farmer who has harvested roughly 10 bags of maize or beans and has two children in school, Prawji-Mama Food Bank calculates the amount of maize needed to pay the school fees, then how many bags the family will need for food. The remaining bags will be stored for the farmer at a fee.

“For example, a farmer might need three of his or her 10 bags of maize to take care of school fees, and maybe retain two to feed the family. That leaves five bags of maize to be stored, but many of these farmers don’t have anywhere to store the food. Prawji-Mama Food Bank charges a small fee every month to store farmers’ food for them and then wait for the market prices to go high so that farmers can sell their food profitably,” Ephrance illustrated.

Prawji-Mama Food Bank is also training youth and women on better farming methods such as land preparation, pest control, and irrigation.

Value addition, such as packaging flour, extracting juice from mangoes, and making peanut butter, is another component that Prawji-Mama Food Bank is planning to offer in order to create more profits as well as jobs. Ephrance and Pauline also envision Prawji-Mama Food Bank organizing farmers into groups and providing them with the knowledge and supplies they need to successfully grow new types of crops or raise livestock.

“While Prawji-Mama Food Bank was inspired to end childhood hunger and improve the lives of farmers, it will also be dedicating 30 percent of its profits to help feed the elderly in these vulnerable communities,” said Ephrance.

“We hope to have a community where agriculture is more productive, food-secure, and where  people are employed. If we can motivate farmers to sell their crops at greater profit, we can keep them in business and help them put an end to poverty.”

Pius Sawa is a freelance journalist based in Kenya. His stories have appeared in Reuters, Farm Radio International, and Inter Press Service.