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6 SNACKING NEWS June 2018 SNACKING NEWS SNACKING NEWS SNACKING NEWS Generation Good: Meet 5 Students Changing the Future of Food — and the World Generation Z — also known as Post-Millen- nials, iGen and Plurals, among others — is a new wave of 60 million young people that we're just getting to know. They are true dig- ital natives and the most diverse and multi- cultural generation we've seen in the U.S. Researchers have deemed them as individu- alists, realists and more globally-minded. However you define them, one thing is for certain – they are change-makers. Gen Z not only has the desire to see posi- tive change in the world, they are bringing their own ideas to the table. They look for solutions and seek to make things their own. The problem is, they don't always have the resources to grow their big ideas into big im- pact. That's why, this January, General Mills launched the Feeding Better Futures Schol- ars Program, an initiative encouraging bright young minds to share the programs they've launched in their communities that help combat hunger and protect important agri- cultural resources. The call was heard by stu- dents around the country, and they answered with incredible ideas. Meet the five Feeding Better Futures Fi- nalists who aren't waiting until graduation to change their world – they're doing it now. Joy Youwakim, a student at The Univer- sity of Texas at Austin and a Nederland, Texas, native, applied for a permit to grow food on top of a Texas landfill near the Austin airport. Once approved, she success- fully grew various crops on a 400-square- foot space on top of the closed landfill. The produce was tested by Food Safety Net Serv- ices and is safe for consumption, proving this is a model that could be duplicated across the U.S. in the future. Jack Griffin, 19, created FoodFinder in his hometown of Duluth, Georgia, to address childhood hunger and close the information gap that exists between families looking for free food assistance and the programs pro- viding that assistance. Now a junior at the University of Michigan, Griffin's mission to make food more accessible to those in need continues to evolve amidst his studies. Today, FoodFinder's website and mobile app include 25,000 food programs with a pres- ence in all 50 states, ensuring food insecure children and their families know exactly when and where they can receive free food assistance. Braeden Mannering, 14, started Brae's Brown Bags (3B) in his hometown of Bear, Delaware, to provide hope and nourishment to homeless and low-income populations. Each bag is filled with healthy food, clean water and a note that tells the recipient he/she is cared about. His work has grown to differ- ent student chapters in Delaware, and he hopes to further expand and educate youth about food insecurity. Through 3B, Manner- ing has delivered more than 11,000 brown bags. Ten years ago, Katie Stagliano, now 19, started Katie's Krops in Summerville, South Carolina, with the mission to empower youth to grow and maintain vegetable gardens of all sizes and donate the harvest to help feed people in need. Today, the College of Charleston student has grown more than 80 Katie's Krops gardens across the country, helping to donate 39,000 pounds of produce to food assistance programs in 2017 alone. Kate Indreland, 19, set out to solve the problem of nutrient depletion in agricultural land in Big Timber, Montana. Her project to balance the soil on her family farm resulted in increased nutritional density in plants by 30 percent. As this continues, the nutrient density in the soil will continue to grow and benefit crops, livestock and ultimately human health. And with such promising re- sults on her own farm, Indreland's goal is to educate farmers and spread this technique worldwide so we can feed more people with better quality food. To learn more about these five young he- roes and their in-action solutions, visit Feed- ingBetterFutures.com. The grand prize winner will be selected in June and awarded $50,000, industry mentorship and the oppor- tunity to present at the Aspen Ideas Festival in June. n Braeden Mannering Jack Griffin Joy Youwakim Kate Indreland Katie Stagliano Sunday's general session program. The MVP athlete is also the co-Creator and Founder of itsAaron, a foundation that helps create awareness for organizations changing the world. Many of the general session speakers, including Tosi and Hardage, will also speak at IDDBA Show & Sell Work- shops. These are more intimate and in- teractive gatherings that take place in the interactive marketplace on the IDDBA show floor. The Show & Sell marketplace showcases trends and mer- chandising ideas that attending retailers can take back to their own stores and start using immediately, with the work- shop sessions held in that forum give at- tendees a chance to sit in on live demonstrations and to ask specific ques- tions of industry experts. Other speakers who will appear in Show & Sell Work- shops include Jim Donald, President and Chief Operating Officer of Albert- sons Companies; Mark Dickinson, co- Founder and Managing Partner of Emerge Strategic Solutions, who will be speaking about how deep grocery dis- counters are disrupting the fresh prod- ucts marketplace; and Andy Ellwood, co-Founder and President of Basket, an app that helps shoppers find the best grocery prices in their area, who will be talking about how advances in technol- ogy can help retailers in the fresh prod- ucts marketplace. The Expo will open at 11 a.m. on Sun- day, following Rodgers' general session talk. Exhibits will be open until 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, reopening from 11 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. on Monday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, June 12. Lantana Hum- mus will be among the exhibitors on the show floor with new product launches fea- turing fruit-forward hummus products that work for breakfast as well as snack times. Don't miss the story about Lantana Hum- mus in the Naturally Healthy section of this issue. Jennifer Fleiss will lead off Monday's general session at 8 a.m. Chief Executive Officer and co-Founder of Code Eight, the first portfolio company within Walmart's startup incubator. She is also the co- Founder of Rent the Runway, which makes designer clothing accessible and convenient for women and in the general session will be discussing experiential marketing. She'll also be appearing in a Show & Sell Workshop and in IDDBA's Expert Neighborhood, in which appoint- ments are available for attendees to meet one-on-one with experts who will answer questions. Registration for the Expert Neighborhood appointments is already open at www.iddba.org. Fleiss will be followed to the stage at the general sessions by IDDBA President Mike Eardley, who annually offers in- depth market analysis of the retail grocery industry. If there's a fact or figure any- where that can help you get a bead on what's ahead for your stores, Eardley is likely to discuss it. He's going to be followed to the stage by Bill McDermott, the CEO of SAP, who will offer tips on how to advance careers to the next level. McDermott will also ap- pear at a Show & Sell Workshop and offer advice in the Expert Neighborhood. Fi- nally for Monday, Daymond John, CEO and Founder of lifestyle fashion brand FUBU and a mainstay of "Shark Tank," will discuss brand building. Tuesday's general sessions convene at 8 a.m. with Eddie Yoon, who will discuss his research for IDDBA on supercon- sumers, This new research will highlight ways that grocers can learn from food- service to help expand the marketplace for everyone who's selling food. Yoon is the Founder of Eddie Would Grow, LLC, an advisory firm on growth strategy. Carey Lohrenz will follow him with les- sons on leadership that she's learned as the first female F-14 Tomcat fighter pilot in the U.S. Navy. She has since she be- come an industry pioneer and team per- formance accelerant, who is uniquely qualified in the fundamentals of leader- ship, teamwork, winning under pressure, reducing errors, and overcoming obsta- cles. Wrapping up the general sessions program for 2018 will be Actor Michael J. Fox, who will talk about the power of optimism and the need to see challenges as opportunities. Fox is well known for his roles on the "Family Ties television program and the "Back to the Future" movie trilogy. In 1991, Fox was diag- nosed with young-onset Parkinson's dis- ease and since created The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Re- search, which is the largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson's research. Registration for IDDBA 2018 is now open at https://www.iddba.org/iddba- show/participate/registration-hotels. n IDDBA Continued from Page 1

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