World We Imagine: Part 3

Food is a crucial substance that can impact our bodies in many ways. When I was 21, I became very engaged with health and fitness and made an effort to fuel my body with foods that are healthy and nourishing My experience with fitness and nutrition lead me to realize the significant impact that healthy food can have on and individual. Additionally, I came to the realization that many individuals don’t have access to healthy food, or food at all. Even worse, the food options that many individuals have access to don’t have any beneficial aspect to them besides the fact that they temporarily cure someones hunger. This is an issue.

The organization that I propose is Food For Everyone. This organization would strive to help eliminate the 6,500 food deserts that exists across major cities throughout the nation (Bayer). A food desert is an area that struggles to have access to affordable and high quality food. Food deserts are typically found in poorer neighborhoods as many places that offer high quality food are in areas outside of those neighborhoods. Food deserts can also be found in areas with small populations. As a result, many residents situated within these food deserts have access to low quality food and have harder access to higher quality food. Therefore, this organization would strive to make high quality food accessible to everyone within those areas at affordable prices so that food scarcity and quality is not a burden to anyone.   

As I mentioned earlier, I realized within the past four years that food can have a crucial impact on your body. The way you feel, mentally and physically, can be heavily impacted by what you eat. When I came to this realization, I realized that it is unfair that other individuals do not have the same access to better food that can better their life. Some people don’t even have access to food which is even worse to think about. Thats why I am passionate about making Food For Everyone a reality. It’s unfair that only a select group of individuals have the access to food that can genuinely leave you in better health and feeling better. Being someone that has realized the power that healthy, high quality food has to enhance ones life, I only think that it is fair that other people get to indulge in the benefits that come along with healthier, nutritious food. 

Our organization will finance vendors that carry healthier options so that they can penetrate neighborhoods found within the food deserts across the nation. We will help encourage these larger vendors to locate their establishments within particular neighborhoods by monetarily aiding them with the opening costs. If the vendor can reach a profitable status, we will then expect the vendor to pay us back in set payments with very low or no interest at all. If we do choose to charge interest, then the additional money will be given to deserving residents to help them afford food. Hopefully, we can also work with these vendors to figure out new products or ways to cut cost that would result with items at a lower cost. 

We would also like to figure out opportunities to incorporate smaller, healthier vendors within these food deserts. This could take the form of subsidizing local farmers markets within a neighborhood so that smaller healthier vendors have a space they can enter. Again, we would cover any of the vendors costs associated with initially opening business in the area, and if the vendor can reach a profitable status, then we will expect the vendor to pay back their loan overtime with little or no interest. There might be a little more risk in this area in terms of loan repayment, but it is a good opportunity to bring additional healthy options to food deserts we are looking to enhance. 

For both large and small vendors, if the vendor is unable to reach a profitable status with the money loaned to them, then their debt will be forgiven. 

Why Should Anima Mundi Development Partners invest? Healthy, nutritious food is a necessity for every human being yet not everyone is granted access to it. AMDP would help improve the lives of a significant amount of individuals by granting them access to a basic necessity. Not only that, this organization is not expected to be a temporary pool of funds that will ultimately be depleted. We have hope that the establishments funded will ultimately turn profitable, returning the money lended out, and allowing us to continue our journey across the nation. 

Works Cited

“Understanding America’s Rural and Urban Food Deserts.” Bayer United States, 3 Aug. 2023, www.bayer.com/en/us/news-stories/understanding-americas-rural-and-urban-food-deserts#:~:text=There%20are%20over%206%2C500%20food,refrigerators%20often%20look%20the%20same.