The Thought For Food Holiday Gift Guide
For foodies, farmers, learners, creatives and more
It’s that time of year again! To get us all in the holiday mood, we’re presenting the one and only: Thought For Food Holiday Gift Guide. After many positive reactions on last year’s edition we thought, why not add a couple of more ideas and products that have been initiated and built by our global community of next-generation innovators?
With great anticipation to 2019, it is the perfect moment to be grateful for all we have accomplished together and to give back to those, we love the most – and by that we mean not only your dearest ones but also, giving back to the planet we’re living on. That’s why all gifts we have listed here for you, are dedicated to making an impact on a positive change, in order to co-create an inclusive and sustainable food system by 2050.
We hope this inspires you to continue joining us in our global movement to take action!
For Foodies
FoPo is a dried food powder that adds additional nutrients to foods like yogurt, soup or even water. The company takes fruit that is being discarded from supermarkets, dries it and turns it into a delicious and healthy powder — they are helping eliminate food waste and finding a new way to help end global hunger. Price: starting at € 1.99
Kelpy makes kelp chips, a healthy snack alternative to the traditional potato version. Kelp is a type of seaweed that serves as a natural ocean filter and is a healthy source of iodine, vitamins, and minerals. By keeping kelp farms afloat, the company is aiding ocean conservation efforts.
Price: $4/bag (currently taking preorders)
Attention, chocolate lovers! Nutricandies has created a vegetable-based, highly nutritious, chocolate-flavored food product that is sourced from smallholder farmers in Brazil. By fostering a more collaborative local economy, and aiming at changing people’s eating habits as well as combatting obesity, Nutricandies’ chocolate products are truly sweet delicacies to enjoy – without having a guilty conscience.
Who doesn’t love yogurt? Naturally fortified with Vitamin A, Sweetpot Yoghurt is not only yummy but is a healthy snack alternative, made out of sweet potatoes! By increasing the market potential for the respective farmers, Sweetpot Yoghurt is reducing post-harvest losses and hopes to change the eating habits, especially of young children and adults.
Heads up, coffee lovers! This Ugandan social business does not only provide tasty coffee, but exists to advance the lives of female farmers and their children through rural wealth creation and community transformation. To support this beautiful initiative, and help empower more women, check out Kyaffe Farmers Coffee’s current patreon page.
Drop all prejudices and let us introduce the next(-gen) superfood: snails! Likabs Food, based out of Ghana, provides snail farmers with professional expertise to increase the production of snails, while providing cost-effective and responsive services to customers in our role as a snail trading hub. Very soon, you’ll be able to buy frozen and dried snails and give it a try – curious? Take a look at their offers here and remember, you heard it first at Thought For Food!
For Farming & At-Home Tools
Henlight provides solar-powered egg production through a mobile lighting system. Providing more hours of light, Henlight helps to stabilize lay rates so smallholder farmers can provide a consistent yield all year. Price: $480
The plantCube is a standalone, personal-sized vertical farm that allows you to grow fresh produce from the comfort of your home without needing a large garden. According to their website, veggies grown in plantCube will have 4x more nutrients than what is available at most supermarkets. Price: Unavailable (currently taking pre-orders)
KinoSol is a solar-powered, personal-sized food dehydrator for fruits, vegetables, grains, and insect protein. By being able to easily dehydrate food, you extend the life of the nutrients available to you and reduce overall food waste. The company also allows you to help send dehydrators to families in developing countries. Price: $250 each, or sponsor a kit for $25+
For Lifelong Learners
This comic book series is a fun way to learn about food and agriculture. The hero, AGRIman, is “the world’s most powerful food provider” and wants to teach others how to properly feed the world. Price: Free
BEEcosystem provides modular bee habitats designed specifically to start conversations about beehives and pollination. The small, wall-mounted design allows you to take the hive outside of the traditional beekeeper environment. Price: $550 to $2,500
Open technology meets social empowerments meets education – EngBOX is an inspiring learning platform that offers courses for potential engineers, mostly living in rural areas. EngBOX is a set of electronic components, preassembled circuit boards, and codes designed for easy integration to create projects to solve water, energy, and food problems. Take a look at their project, get in touch and support their powerful mission!
For Activists
The founders of reNature, Felipe Villela and Marco de Boer first met at the TFF Summit last year, and now help farmers all over the world to change their production method to a sustainable agroforestry system. If you’d like to join by activating new solutions with reNature, why not start by spreading the movement with one of their fabulous t-shirts and hoodies?
Price: €28 to €54
For (low-budget)Creatives
Channel your inner poet!
If you’re on a tight budget, why not become a little more creative? Our ‘poet-in-residence’, Peter Bickerton, the science writer, is a true inspiration when it comes to juggling words and conveying a message on serious topics such as food security, in both a charming and resolute way. If you have a good cause to support, get in touch with Peter and earn a free poem from him!
Why not try it yourself? Here’s a little inspiration from a poem he wrote for Thought For Food:
“Between the mountain and the sea,
Where ten finalist teams
Come together to pitch
And learn, and share,
As part of a global family
Of next generation dreams
That with Thought for Food
Become reality.”
Support the TFF Foundation!
And lastly, we’d love your support for our movement! Thought For Food is stepping up to the next challenge, building the first end-to-end talent engine for food and agriculture and by that, empowering 100,000 next-gen innovators from all around the world through a unique learning program. Together with you, we’ll be able to reach our audacious goal of enabling every single young person on the planet, with the right tools, mindset, and connections to change the food system!
We would very much appreciate any donation you can make to help our cause — please find more information here! All donations are tax deductible.
Happy Holidays!