Start With the Simple

Most social entrepreneurship ideas are simple. An entrepreneur finds a need and creates a product or service to meet that need. Areas of need include homelessness, poverty, inequality, and many others. For Kavita Shukla, founder of Fenugreen, food waste was the most pressing issue. Shukla was shocked to discover that the world loses about 25% of its food supplies to waste and spoilage. She decided to do something about it, putting one of the greatest modern social entrepreneurship ideas into action.

Shukla had a simple idea: she wanted to make fruits and vegetable last longer, so they could get to the people who needed them without spoiling. She created her own proprietary blend of natural herbs and spices. The blend became the basis for Shukla’s product, FreshPaper. Wrapping produce in the papers can extend shelf life by up to 4 times over ordinary wrapping papers. Shukla’s company, Fenugreen, manufactures and distributes the papers. They are available at Whole Foods stores all over America. The company plans to expand into more stores.

A Vital Need

Why are new social entrepreneurship ideas vital in the area of food waste? The numbers tell the story. Farmers harvest enough food to feed everyone, but a quarter of what they grow spoils and is lost. Currently, 100 million acres of farmland are going to waste because of this. Economic losses come to $450 billion. The costs of wasted water and fuel are too high to count. For these reasons, Freshpapers are a necessary innovation created at just the right time.

Fresh For All

The idea of keeping fruits and vegetables fresh is a simple idea, but its impact can be huge. Longer lasting food stores mean less food insecurity for many of the world’s citizens. Fenugreen’s mission and motto are simple, too-“fresh for all.” They are getting closer to that goal every day. Sometimes the simplest social entrepreneurship ideas are also the best ones!