National FFA Organization Partners With General Mills For Its Feeding Better Futures Scholars Program, Seeks Young Innovators

According to recent estimates, food production will need to increase by 70 percent to feed the world’s growing population, which is projected to surpass 9 billion people by 2050.

“Feeding future generations sustainably is a complicated problem, and we recognize the need to find solutions now,” said Jeff Harmening, chairman and CEO, General Mills. “As a global food leader for over 150 years, we’re proud of our efforts to alleviate hunger and promote environmentally responsible practices across our supply chain, but we can’t solve these issues alone.”

Last year, FFA member Kate Indreland was a runner-up in the program. She worked on her ranch to diligently implement regenerative agriculture, new processes to restore important nutrients to the soil.

To get involved in this year’s program, young people ages 13-21 are invited to enter the solutions they’re leading in their communities by submitting a short video or photos to www.FeedingBetterFutures.com now through February 26, 2019. General Mills will announce three program finalists in April 2019. 

Finalists from last year’s General Mills Feeding Better Futures Scholars Program include:

• Katie Stagliano (Grand Prize Winner): Ten years ago, Katie, 19, started Katie’s Krops with the mission to empower youth to grow vegetable gardens and donate the harvest to help feed people in need. Today there are more than 100 Katie’s Krops gardens growing across the country.
• Jack Griffin: Jack developed an app called FoodFinder that connects families with local food pantries. To date, the app has cataloged over 25,000 food pantries in all 50 states.
• Braeden Mannering: Braeden’s program, 3B Brae’s Brown Bags, helps homeless and low-income populations get access to healthy food and clean water through brown bag donations. He also seeks to empower other young people and has activated over 3,600 volunteers across the country.

General Mills has been active in hunger relief, soil health and sustainable agriculture for years, serving as a leader in promoting environmentally and socially responsible practices across its supply chain, as well as providing resources to food insecure communities. Some of these initiatives include:

• Partnering with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to restore and protect pollinator habitat across hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland in North America.
• Committing to sustainably source all 10 of the company’s priority ingredients by 2020. The company is currently 76 percent of the way there.
• Serving as a founding partner of Feeding America, the Global Foodbanking Network and Partners in Food Solutions, and enabling more than 201 million meals through food donations globally since 2010.
• Partnering with MealConnect to recover and distribute more than 575 million pounds of surplus food in partnership with 90 food banks, facilitate more than 1.2 million food pickups and support more than 4,200 nonprofit hunger relief organizations since 2014.

For official rules or to enter in-action solutions for the General Mills Feeding Better Futures Scholars Program, visit www.FeedingBetterFutures.com.