Thessaloniki: Teenagers have found a way to reduce the food crisis in Africa

«We know that we will not save Africa from starvation, but we can offer something as much as we deserve. Africa can not be based on alms, it needs immediate and radical solutions and what each of us can offer in this direction is important “: with these few words, the student of the 2nd Lyceum, Vassilis Malasidis, gives to the stigma of an effort, which unites since last year six teenagers in Thessaloniki and Uganda, to work on a common goal: reducing food insecurity in parts of Africa, through the production of high nutritional value of flour from worm larvae «Tenebrio molitor».

In order to put its idea into practice and set up the first productive farms in Uganda, probably in 2023, the team – called “Food for Thought” and consisting of Vassilis Malasidis, Vassilis Tserkezis and Maria Eleftheria Tsiaousi – must first of all waiting for … adulthood.

Business people waiting for adulthood

«We are all minors, 17.5 years old, so we have to wait to grow up, to develop our business. Of course, we intend to use the time until adulthood to better plan and develop our idea, informing about its existence, creating websites and seeking funds, convincing potential investors that our idea is feasible and offers drastic solutions.“, Explains Vassilis Malasidis and adds that, among other things, the three students have already contacted representatives of the Hellenic-African Chamber of Commerce and Development, who expressed great interest in their idea.

In addition, young entrepreneurs will need to obtain the necessary certifications to produce flourwhich will either be sold or made available for free to vulnerable groups, and go beyond bureaucracy, not only in Africa but also in Europe, where the framework for edible insect cultivation is something very new: the EU only approved production last year Tenebrio molitor larvae flour, recognizing that this flour is of high nutritional value and high content of proteins, amino acids and other components, while its production is cheap, easy and with a low environmental footprint.

Three tons of flour per quarter

The production of flour is, as Vassilis explains, relatively easy and the required investment quite low, since the cultivation is done in simple tanks with worms and the production can start only three months after the installation and the beginning of their reproduction.

«We estimate that we will initially be able to produce about three tons of flour per quarter from the nine-ton worm larvae. The farms could be set up either in Kampala or elsewhere in Uganda, that’s under investigation. The amount of the investment itself is around 15,000 euros, not including permits and any extraordinary expenses. We will seek funding from EU and African Union programs, while considering the possibility of crowdfunding and raising funds from private companies and ESG Funds (Environmental Social Governance)“, Announces Vassilis.

The story from the beginning

But how did the three young men from the Experimental High School of the University of Macedonia decide to come up with a business idea around the issue of food security, which the war in Ukraine brings to the fore in a painful way? And how did the collaboration with the Ugandan students come about?

«We have always been concerned about social issues, so we were interested in doing something with a positive social impact. Our partnership with students from Uganda began in October 2021, when we won the World Healthy Nutrition and Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases Challenge, a WorldFoodDay Foodathon Action organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Our team also won first place in the Pan-Hellenic Social Innovation (SIR) competition of Junior Achievement (JA) Greece and will represent Greece in the Online World Innovation Relay Global Final 2022 on June 21“, Notes Vassilis.

Unprecedented experience working with African students

What have they learned so far from the experience of participating in such a project and how will they use it in their future career? According to Vassilis, the students learned to persevere despite the difficulties, since due to their difficult communication – due to technical issues – with their peers in Uganda, they had to look for many different alternative ways to get in touch with them. “For about a month we tried to locate them through various channels, and finally we found them through JA Africa,” he recalls.

In addition, they learned to communicate with their peers from completely different cultures: “Working with people of other nationalities, especially from Africa, is an unprecedented experience. We did not really know anything about the situation in Uganda and we saw many things completely foreign to our own experiences. For example, communication through zoom, which for us is everyday, there is anything but self-evident. In addition, we realized, through everything, we discussed with our peers from Uganda, that Africa does not need alms, but immediate solutions and that helping it has to do not only with volunteering or offering money, but also with entrepreneurship and “The aim of the group is to get as many people in Africa as possible to benefit from the operation of the farms -” that’s why we decided to do the unit with the farms in Uganda and not in Greece, which would be much more easy”.

Vassilis Malasidis wants to study Medicine, without this meaning that he excludes his involvement in the business field. “However, I believe that whatever I choose to do in the future, this experience will be very useful. I think that after such an experience, any of the three of us, when he creates something in the future, will integrate in it the social dimension “concludes Vassilis, who points out the support of the teacher of the three children, economist ‘Anna Matsioris, but and the scientific guidance of the professor of Molecular Microbiology of Food at the University of Thessaly, Fotini Parlapani.