Spark: Zea10

SPARK WORKSHOP

Zea10: Disrupting Hunger

Facilitated By Ian Mackay and Karl Greden 

Wednesday, November 6th, 2019
6-7:30 p.m.
Refreshments included with RSVP

Uris Hall, Room 307
3022 Broadway
New York, NY

OVERVIEW
Zea10’s mission is to develop sustainable ecosystems using plant-based nutritional solutions to foster heathy, vibrant communities. There are over 4 million tons of brewers' grains globally, which could provide 50 million people with their daily protein and fiber needs, without tilling an additional acre of land. However, this plant-based, nutritional resource is currently just discarded. Having identified this underutilized resource, Zea10 has created proprietary nutritious and delicious food ingredients to create healthy food products.

At its core, Zea10 is a B2B model aiming to disrupt the health and fitness food industry by providing these ingredients to CPG firms to create affordable, healthy, and sustainable products. As part of this model, Zea10 seeks to commit 10 percent of its core business to food-insecure populations, starting in New York City. Each year, an estimated 1.4 million NYC residents, and one in five children, rely on emergency food programs that already struggle to provide enough nutritious food.

In building out this support, Zea10 would like to understand how to best provide nutrition to three major groups (food-insecure children, food-insecure employed adults, and homeless people) using a pilot program. This workshop will be an opportunity to collaborate and ideate on developing an effective pilot strategy. Bring your experience and expertise to create an interdisciplinary session that helps move the needle on hunger!

AREAS FOR DISCUSSION

• Who is the consumer?
• What needs does this fill for the consumer?
• Which products to offer?
• Where to conduct the pilot?
• Are there any potential partners or sponsors to market/facilitate the program?
• What are the remaining questions to answer to launch this pilot?
• What are the concerns with this target group / model?

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Ian Mackay, CEO of Zea10, has over twenty years of experience commercializing, forming, and managing technology companies. He is committed to sustainability and reducing hunger. Ian has a BS in Chemistry from Tufts University, a MSc in Materials Science from Rochester Institute of Technoloy, an MPA from the Humphrey School of the University of Minnesota, and an MBA from the Carlson School of the University of Minnesota.

Karl Greden is head of engineering at Zea10, where he has been able to focus on his passion for sustainability along with technology implementation. Karl has a BS in engineering from the University of Minnesota and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He has spent time working on a wide range of cutting edge sustainability projects, and continues to promote sustainable nutrition with Zea10.

Spark provides Social Innovators with an opportunity to explore resources, connections and potential solutions to help their social ventures. These workshops tap into the collective knowledge within Columbia University and the larger entrepreneurial and social impact community.

Spark is a platform for ventures to make valuable connections, as the audience is a self-selected group interested in the topic area. Ventures are also able to gather ideas through group brainstorming to help them address specific questions or problems within the business organization. 

These workshops are free and open to all who are willing to bring their ideas, experience, and connections to help solve social and environmental challenges that social innovators aim to address.

If you are unable to attend the above event but would like more information on Spark, please register for our mailing list.

For more information, or if you would like to suggest a future Spark workshop, please contact socialenterprise@gsb.columbia.edu.