Mauritius representatives excel at the World Food Day (WFD) Foodathon
The World Food Day (WFD) Foodathon, was a project organised by EIT Food and Junior Achievement Europe, in partnership with EUROPEN and with the support of Bayer. The Foodathon was an intensive two-day Innovation Camp between 13th-15th of October 2021, aiming to solve specific agri-food challenges and lead to the generation of new business ideas/business propositions.
The Foodathon aimed to raise awareness among young generations of the significant challenges facing our food systems today, to help young talent gain entrepreneurial skills and acquire the confidence to become potential future entrepreneurs in the agri-food sector.
More than 100 students from secondary schools in Europe and Africa will participate and work together in teams to solve a common challenge. This unique opportunity will allow participants not only to develop entrepreneurial competences but also to experience transnational collaborative efforts and cultural boundaries distribution for a common goal.
The three challenges during the Foodathon were:
- CHALLENGE 1 – Food loss and waste: Develop a feasible and realistic product or a service to reduce food waste during production, along supply chains and by the consumer.
- CHALLENGE 2 – Tech, Data and Digitalization for Sustainable Agriculture: Develop a feasible and realistic product or a service to optimise resources using digital technologies applied to agriculture.
- CHALLENGE 3 – Healthy Nutrition and Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases1: Develop a feasible and realistic product or a service to contribute to healthy nutrition and prevent non-communicable diseases.
“Overall, the event was magnificent; the organization was great, and the organisers , juries and mentors were very helpful and friendly. We had no language barrier so we could all communicate easily. Working with people from other countries was the best part. We now have friends overseas, and that friendship and teamwork transcends countries and oceans. Overall, we were all very happy and even worked with music to make it more fun!
The main lesson that I have learnt, is that we really need to be more conscious about food consumption. Us as consumers tends to over-eat, and exploit the natural resources, resulting in larger food waste, fewer food for the underdeveloped countries and eventually eating too much junk food will leads to non-communicable diseases.”
– Shania Kamudu
“The event was great. The organisers were always there to help us and to answer our questions. They gave us valuable advice on how to improve our products and how to better work as a team.
It was a great opportunity to know our teammates from Slovakia and Zambia. Our Zambian friends were very creative and our Slovakian friends could take on big tasks such as preparing the presentation. Though we were in different time zones, we were able to compromise and meet virtually.
Participating in this event made me realise that food waste is not a common subject of discussion. Many people take food for granted and are not aware of its real value.”
– Akilesh Bhookul
I have learnt that teamwork is an important skill. Working together brings greater ideas and motivation to create a strong and impactful project. It was difficult for me, we could not communicate well and this reflected on our work.
Overall I really appreciated this project. I enjoyed the other participants’ ideas. They were wonderful with great teamwork. The mentors were very helpful and kind. My team might not have won but I am happy to have been a part of this.
My topic was “Healthy Nutrition and prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases”. It is an interesting and important topic to talk about because it is a serious problem. It has major negative impacts on the world that many people are not aware of. Bringing several solutions together from different countries can make the world a better place.
– Tevisha Sadayen
This event had help us learn more about FOOD WASTE all around the world. It has also helped us to make new friends from another country.
Working with another team helped us to improve our communication skills. We learned how to collaborate. We have learnt from this event that food plays the most important role in our life. Food waste need to be reduced.
This event had help me to learn more about FOOD WASTE all around the world. It needs to be reduced. One third (1.3 billion tons) of food produced globally is wasted every year, amounting to about one trillion US dollars’ worth.
My advices are:
- Shop smart
- Store food properly
- Learn to preserve
– Yohan Coomar Ramluggun
“The event overall was inspiring, nice and an innovative way to generate ideas about how to avoid food waste
It was nice to work with my fellow Mauritian friends, and we were also able to bond with the Bulgarian team. This was an exciting experience.
We humans acting carelessly created food wastage, but by working together we could eliminate this and live in a sustainable way.”
– Ramasawmy Mithilesh
The Foodathon was very different from my past experiences of taking part in online events. The language barrier made it difficult for both teams to collaborate and we ended up not making the best use of the available time. Everyone was, however, very motivated and gave their best until the end. For me, this is what really counts.
The event helped me to improve my interpersonal skills. I tend to come off as a bit pushy and arrogant. I need to work on my emotional intelligence because I think that is what I need to better work in a team.
– Devesh Bulatoo
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