Bite Me - making food social
We create what food can do with people and what people can do with food. Through catering, events and workshops we make food social.
About You
Background Information
First Name
Jonas
Last Name
Groen
Twitter URL
https://twitter.com/#!/jonasgroen
Facebook URL
The competition is only open to people between 18-34 years-old and resident in UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark or the Netherlands. Does this apply to you
Yes.
Country of residence of entrepreneur
The Netherlands
Tell us about your personal background. Why are you passionate about this issue? Making an idea a reality takes innovation, dedication and strong leadership. Do you have the necessary entrepreneurial skills to realize your vision?
My first attempt at changing the world was at the age of 16 when I joined the board of a major danish NGO working with educational projects all over the world. At the age of 19, immediately after finishing danish high school, I went to Asia to set up a social company employing war veterans in Sri Lanka under the name of One Leg Art. Later I have obtained a bachelor in Anthropology before moving to Amsterdam to embark on the Knowmads education in social entrepreneurship and changemaking. For almost 10 years I have in other words tried, failed and succeeded in making ideas become reality and gained valuable skills along the way. Today I realize that contributing to the world is about creation - creating tangible products that at the same time have an impact. That is why I believe that making food social and sustainable is a key to a better world.
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Bite Me
Organization Website
Organization Country
Netherlands, NH, Amsterdam
Country where this project is creating social impact
Netherlands, NH, Amsterdam
Is your organization a
For‐profit
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Innovation
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
Enough horseraddish! Let's be honest here - the world doesn't need more depressing news and problems. We are not trying to solve a problem. People are far too serious about what they do; they forgot all the fun and play after kindergarten...so we create joyful connections because that is what the world needs. The End.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
The best thing about this need is that connecting people with joy and joy with people, makes it possible to deal with a lot of the world's issues. Just as with ice cream any kind of food is the key to creating connections and have been since fire was invented. So we work with healthy, organic, local and fair trade food. To be specific Bite Me creates workshops, events and campaigns where we introduce food to people and people to food. Through the connections achieved here it is possible to not only rebuild communities but also inspire them to also work with the healthy, organic, local and fair trade world. That makes the joyful connections go global.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
Back to the honesty-thing: We are for-profit. So our primary activity is to supply social Entrepreneurs with good, healthy food at their work, meetings and events. It makes them work more efficiently, make their events be remembered (yes, even when we profit it improves the world) and we make money to spend on the world. Our changing the world is based on inspiration. In a world of limited ressources we inspire people. To mention some specific example we have designed a concept for a healthy and attractive breakfast in schools for 17-year olds. And we are organising events at community centers that inform about the origin of food while also showing how to understand and cook sustainable food. In a longer (and more global) perspective we will channel our income into connecting consumers with producers around the food that they both depend on.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
In the Netherlands we share many goals with the Youth Food Movement and work with them occasionally. They are however an organization seeking to raise awareness while Bite Me is a social business creating new solutions. This different basic view on how to contribute might be a challenge as it is an important organization. We like seeing it as a possibility though as they raise awareness and we inspire to taking the next step. Awareness-organizations on food are plentiful in Europe and thus Bite Me is a very expandable concept in this region at least to provide that little extra that actually makes a change.
Select the stage that best applies to your business
Operating for less than a year
This Entry is about (Issues)
Social Impact
What is the social impact you have had to date and how you measure it?
We believe that we have an impact every time we connect a person with food. It is pretty chill to measure if social is an education in Africa but for Bite Me being social is about working in our own backyard and connecting people across the world on equal terms. It makes perfect sense that social impact is everywhere because it is ingrained in why we have a business.
Sustainability
How does your model address financial, social, and environmental sustainability?
Bite Me is currently financially sustainable based on the income from our catering to social Entrepreneurs. To ensure that this continues we are joining networks and hubs with the agreement that we supply food for their need. This constantly expands our reach and thus potential customers within this sector. With a solid and regular demand our financial sustainability is secure enough for expansions that can encourage growth beyond this sector and engage in sustainable social projects with relevant institutions. This will after a while also be providing income so we can focus our finances on ensuring social and environmental sustainability of projects in other parts of the world with less strong institutions.
Awareness & learning
How do you see social entrepreneurship contributing to the improvement of developing countries?
Social entrepreneurship has the advantage over most NGO and governmental projects of being fully sustainable and focused on inclusion. However social entrepreneurship should always be the responsibility of people themselves to engage in within their own country. I cannot impose my solution to a need that I don't understand. Instead social entrepreneurship should be focused on sharing and cooperation with the equivalents of each country to make the best specific solution for that context. That is what is actually possible within our field as we don't need to sustain huge bureaucratic organisations but just to involve people in building up their livelihood.
What aspects of your stay in Uganda as part of the competition do you think you will find most challenging and rewarding?
This means that it will be challenging to refrain from taking upon a responsibility that belongs in Uganda - to steal their independence. Instead it will be rewarding to enjoy their unique solutions to deal with their problems which will be inspiring to how we could work with our needs in Europe. It is always rewarding how much we can learn and challenging not to teach.
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