About Good Food Innovation Fund

The food system is unhealthy, unsustainable, and inequitable, creating more costs than economic value. Over the past fifty years, changes in the food system have led to significant advancements in food security. However, these changes, which prioritized yield and calories, have created a global food system that generates negative health, environmental, and equity externalities. There is a need to fundamentally change the food system and prioritize "Good Food" – food that is nourishing, regenerative, and equitably produced and distributed. Factors such as high prices, consumer preferences and unfavorable policy impede the intake and consumption of good foods. There are many inefficiencies in the good food supply chain, including high transaction costs, access to land, infrastructure challenges, access to credit and information inefficiencies, and market inefficiencies, which drive up the prices of good foods. Therefore the price differences of good foods compared to less healthy foods becomes a significant factor causing consumers to choose cheaper options. Further, consumers generally consider the taste, price, and convenience as a big determinant in the selection of food compared to the nutritional content, and this inhibits the uptake of many good foods.

There is a need for systemic, structural change to drive public and private capital towards Good Food.

The Good Food Innovation Fund aims to support the effective growth and development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Sub-Saharan Africa. Such businesses could be:

1. Distributors, and retailers of protective foods for local, institutional markets such as school feeding, social protection programs, prisons, or hospitals

2. Manufacturers of on-farm and home light-processing and preservation technologies

3. Sellers/leasers of cold storage and distribution solutions that preserve food nutrients and reduce waste during transit from farm to market

4. Developers of low-cost packaging innovations

5. SMEs developing new, more nutritious foods or nutritional enhancement of existing food products such as fortified whole grain

6. SMEs serving low income segments in affordable serving sizes, formats addressing the issue of availability, equitable access, desirability and affordability of Good Foods among Vulnerable Communities

7. Early-stage companies operating at the intersection of energy and agriculture by applying cost-effective, renewable energy solutions that increase the availability and affordability of Good Foods to Vulnerable Communities or improve the health of Vulnerable Communities