Change Makers

EIT Food, alongside YSYS - a leading Startup Community and Diversity and Inclusion Consultancy - and King’s Cross Impact Hub are bringing together the best minds from all corners of society to find fair, sustainable and safe solutions for the greatest food challenges of our time.

We’re looking for ambitious individuals from underrepresented groups - such as women, non-binary, Black, Asian, minority ethnic groups and the LGBTQI community - to join our Startup Weekend on 4-6 October 2019, at King’s Cross Impact Hub.

Over 3 engaging days, the selected applicants will be supported to launch an idea, find co-founders, learn new skills, get a greater understanding about food system issues, connect with an amazing community and pitch for €10,000 worth of support.

The application deadline is Wednesday 4th of September 2019 at midnight BST, and spaces are limited. If you don’t live in London and would like to attend, there is a potential budget available for accommodation and travel.

You don’t have to have an idea to join, just lots of passion!

Apply for the Startup Weekend here.

We run a variety of programmes to support startups at all stages of their journeys, helping them to collectively create positive impact across the food system to make it more sustainable, healthy and safe.

The EIT Food Change Makers Programme is a new, collaborative initiative which gives diverse talent the chance to become agrifood-tech innovators or entrepreneurs through a series of events, mentorship and training. We are committed to supporting people to find solutions that tackle everything from how food is produced and distributed to how it is consumed and disposed of.

What’s agrifood-tech?

EIT Food supports new businesses across the entire agriculture, fisheries as well as food manufacturing, distribution, consumption and disposal sectors (collectively called agrifood-tech).

Why now?

Growing population levels coupled with dwindling resources continue to strain our ability to feed billions of people. The issues behind this huge challenge are global, complex and interrelated - and we need a diverse range of ideas and organisations if we are going to address them.

Read more about about the challenges currently facing the food sector and the importance of entrepreneurship here

There is abundant evidence that startups can and should play a key role in creating positive and transformational change across the entire food system, and that particular attention should be posed to the risk of startup “gentrification” in order to ensure real innovation happens.

At EIT Food we work hard to ensure a diverse pool of participants get to access our programmes - especially from underrepresented backgrounds such as women, BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) and the LGBTQI+ communities. This dual objective is vital to our systems change strategy and means that not only can we empower those with less immediate opportunities - but just as much potential - as overrepresented groups, but we can also encourage more diverse solutions.

The EIT Food Change Makers Programme’s vision is to unlock this potential by ensuring that participants feel confident they have the skills and qualities to create a meaningful and lasting impact. Together, we will contribute to EIT Food’s mission to transform the food system - making it healthier, more sustainable and trusted.

Notes

We are passionate about intersectional support and are therefore particularly interested in supporting women and BAME individuals who identify as: disabled, LGBTQ+, and other groups currently not represented in the agrifood startup sector.

We understand that to create a diverse and rich agrifood-tech ecosystem, we need to work with others. Thank you to the below Community Partners who are helping us create an ecosystem of Change Makers.

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