Globe Students Enter Competition to End World Hunger

Five Iowa State University students have entered the Thought For Food Challenge; a challenge centered on the theme, “How to feed 9 billion people by 2050.” The team is going by the name, The Gung-Ho Globies, and consists of Mikayla Sullivan, Ella Gehrke, Elise Kendall, Clayton Mooney, and Alexandria Wilson, all Global Resource System Majors with secondary majors and minors in fields such as Sustainability, Animal Science, Entrepreneurship, Sociology, Biology, and Public Service and Administration in Agriculture. Team member Mikayla Sullivan, who started the group, explained the drive the team has by stating, “Our team cares about rural farmers and their livelihoods and we want to work to increase their food production and decrease post-harvest loss through sustainable implementations. Our passion for global development and ending world hunger led us to the Thought For Food Challenge, a global competition that encourages millennials across the world to create unique and innovative solutions in the fight against hunger.”

“This is something that is very real to everyone on our team. Each one of us have witnessed hunger and malnutrition, first hand. It’s hard to walk away from that and not want to implement change. The TFF challenge has created a new way of thinking for us as young global citizens,” explained Gehrke.

For the competition, the Gung-Ho Globies are creating a mobile solar dehydrator with a protected storage unit and calling it the “KinoSol”. This product is an efficient tool that increases market accessibility, prevents food loss, and increases nutrition and food security during times of food instability in communities throughout the world. The KinoSol tackles the challenges of food waste and malnutrition by dehydrating fruits and vegetables using solar energy while utilizing storage space and mobility. These dehydrated fruits and vegetables can then be consumed at a later date when fruits and vegetables aren’t readily available. The design focuses on individual farms to allow each person who owns our inexpensive and easy to use product a better life style that is a result of a healthy diet filled with a variety of food.

Right now, KinoSol is in its first testing stage with a second prototype on the way. The Gung-Ho Globies team has continued to meet with faculty from different disciplines across the University to gain more insight into rural communities and the food dehydration process. In addition to panel discussions and the production of a prototype, the team has launched a successful social media campaign and maintained an interactive blog on the Thought For Food website. To keep up with their prototype development and what the Gung-Ho Globies are working on, check out their social media on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GunghoGlobies

Twitter: @Gunghoglobies

Instagram: @ghglobies