Jali Fruit Co. Wants to Spark 10,000 Smiles by Giving Away Sun-Dried Fruit Snacks
Lucy Waweru is a part of the Kakuku cooperative. (Picture provided by Jali Fruit Co.)
Kenya Native Colletta Maingi is a community development officer that trains women in different cooperatives around Africa on how to take care of mangos and dry them. Maingni said the farms are very selective of the fruits they harvest. In just one week, she visits five cooperatives where she’s in charge of a minimum of 20 women each. Maingi is directly elevating the women around her by teaching them vital skills.
“I’ve seen their lives change and that’s my greatest joy,” said Maingi.
Maingi works with Jali Fruit Co., the first brand launched by Milwaukee-based social enterprise startup Agricycle Global, to cut back the waste in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean by drying their fruits and turning them into snacks.
Agricycle Global is a Wisconsin Benefit Corporation eliminating extremely rural poverty through market-based solutions.
According to Jail Fruit’s website, in Sub-Saharan Africa, 95 percent of their food waste happens before it ever reaches a market. Jali Fruit works with over 40 cooperatives in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean to provide up to seven times the daily average wage to rural women farmers.
“They are very hardworking. They are committed to providing food that isn’t full of contaminants,” Maingi said about the women harvesting the fruit.
Apart of Jail Fruit’s impact is igniting smiles and they’re doing this by giving away 10,000 of their bags of natural, sun-dried Party Pineapples to Milwaukeeans. The Jali Smile Squad will hand-deliver a bag of Party Pineapple to each nominee starting the week of Dec. 7.
Each pack of dried fruit is 100% traceable from the harvest to the customer’s hands through the Find My Farm QR code. The code is an avenue to meet the women who make the Jali Fruit snacks possible.
“It’s not just food,” said Jen Kuhn, Chief Branding Officer at Agricycle. “You’re helping make a change. Therefore you’re making people smile, which influences others to smile.”
“If you’re smiling, someone else will smile,” she added.
Lucy Waweru harvesting bananas. (Picture provided by Jali Fruit)
Recently, Jali Fruit met up with Lucy Waweru, one of the women who harvest fruit in the Kakuku cooperative, to take a look into her daily life. According to their write up, Waweru is a 67-year-old farmer, mentor and mother, amongst other things. Through her work, she’s built herself a home to fit her life.
Waweru grows oranges, tangerines, mangoes and bananas. She also grows sweet potatoes avocados and grains. Women like Waweru are sparking smiles from continents away and it all starts with their joy.
Nominations for Jali Fruit snacks can be submitted through Dec. 1, 2020, or until 10,000 people have been nominated.
To make a nomination, click here.