The Food Insecurity Challenge at Iowa State University invites students to use innovation and entrepreneurship to tackle hunger in Iowa and beyond.
The Challenge will kick off Tuesday with an event highlighting the realities of food insecurity, from local food poverty to global hunger and how these issues affect Ames and Story County. After the banquet, students will form teams to brainstorm innovative solutions to these challenges.
The competition will conclude Nov. 18, when teams present their ideas to a panel of judges and prizes are awarded to the top projects.
“I have to credit Dean Dan Robison from CALS for the inspiration,” Judi Eyles, director of the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, said. “He posed the idea that perhaps students could use their innovation and entrepreneurship skills to come up with creative ways to solve food insecurity challenges.”
Eyles said the program builds directly on that vision by giving students the tools to think critically and apply entrepreneurial principles to real-world issues.
“Entrepreneurship is all about problem solving,” Eyles said. “Through the Food Insecurity Challenge, we teach the entrepreneurial process to students as they brainstorm answers to food insecurity.”
The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Ivy College of Business fund the competition, which will award three prizes totaling $9,000 to the best ideas.
Beyond the competition, Eyles hopes the challenge helps students recognize how widespread hunger can be.
“Often, people think food insecurity happens in other countries,” Eyles said. “This challenge brings to light for students that food insecurity isn’t just prevalent in our state, but right here on our own campus.”
Eyles said it’s not too late for students to join.
“Students do not have to have an idea in mind, and they don’t need a team in order to register,” Eyles said. “Individuals can attend, participate in our kickoff event on Tuesday and join any team once we go through the team formation process.”
For more information on the Food Insecurity Challenge, click here.
