Located in Lusaka, Jesuit Development Farm (JDF) grows various organic vegetables like lettuce, onions, garlic and herbs such as moringa. Moringa, a plant rich in antioxidants and known for its purported medicinal properties, can be an excellent source of essential vitamins and minerals. To meet the increased demand for the plant, JDF looked to Partners in Food Solutions for help with increasing their capacity and identifying inefficiencies in their solar tunnel drying system. “In our local community, we do not always have access to experts with the experience PFS volunteers have,” said Father Tadeusz, managing director of JDF. “The support of PFS and its volunteers helps us avoid many problems.”

Will Suhring, a process engineer at Hershey with experience in developing, installing and activating new equipment and processing systems, offered to help JDF and share his knowledge in this area. “One of my favorite aspects of PFS is that it connects creative, entrepreneurial people from all across the world to collaborate on projects which are of benefit to everyone involved,” said Will. “I enjoy the creative problem solving aspect of the project due to working under different constraints than projects in my corporate role. It’s also great knowing that successful projects bring jobs, better food security, and many other benefits to the clients and their communities.”

After reviewing feedback from JDF about what they liked and didn’t like about their existing drying system, Will and the project team came up with several modifications that would improve their efficiency. “We suggested adding vents at each end of the tunnel to encourage air flow and remove moisture because it would be a meaningful improvement to their drying process and fit within their local materials and building constraints. We also suggested that they include plenty of room for handwashing stations and captive shoe storage, along with tables to hold wash basins at a comfortable height, because that would improve food safety and quality, and make the operation more comfortable and efficient for the workers.”

JDF plans to utilize the volunteer’s recommendations to improve their current solar tunnel drying system and to help construct their new dryer. “I really enjoy our interactions with PFS volunteers,” said Fr. Tadeusz. “During the process of developing a new solar tunnel model I learned more about food safety, efficient drying processes and how to better utilize the available space. I am grateful for everyone involved in this project and for their commitment and support of my efforts.”

Partners in Food Solutions releases a new white paper documenting how we built our virtual, skills-based volunteering program. Through twelve years of innovation and growth, we have honed our program to bring maximum impact for both our African food company clients and volunteer experts. Read our report to find out more.

Read the White Paper

In her role as a senior quality assurance officer with DSM, Joell Springer spends the majority of her time performing audits. “I am responsible for auditing suppliers of our raw materials, packaging, lab testing services and more. During a normal year, I am traveling every week and conducting upwards of 60 audits a year,” she said. Since COVID-19 started, Joell’s day-to-day has had to change drastically. “Now I am conducting virtual audits about once a month. When Partners in Food Solutions (PFS) approached me with an opportunity to help Juaben Oil Mills improve their quality management system, I thought it would be a great way for me to spend my extra time and help others while doing what I love.”

Juaben Oil Mills, a palm oil producer in the Ashanti region of Ghana, decided to work toward a food safety certification under the United Nations Industrial Development Organization’s Global Quality and Standards program. “It’s very important to us to have an improved quality management system (QMS) as it helps us coordinate our operations to better satisfy our customers and meet all our regulatory requirements,” said Kwame Adomako, sustainability officer at Juaben Oil Mills. “As part of the palm oil supply chain, we would like to see an improvement in our operations. By partnering with PFS we have access to a great deal of resources and expertise to help us tackle the pressing issues as a growing company in the palm oil industry,” he continued.

To date, Joell and the volunteer team have reviewed Juaben Oil Mill’s existing documentation relating to its quality system. After realizing the documents were not up to standard, the project team helped the client develop a new documentation control and management plan. Based on the plan, over 200 policies and forms have been created and reviewed, and the client keeps developing new procedures for their business. “To us, volunteers from PFS are like staff we never hired, but they contribute just as much to our operations in a very special way,” Kwame said. “Thanks to this partnership, we are on our way to being a significant player in the edible oil processing industry.”

PFS: Please share more about yourself.

AH: I studied food engineering and have worked in sales for various food ingredients throughout my career. I enjoy working in multicultural teams and have spent the past several years volunteering with PFS as a Client Lead for a couple of different clients.

PFS: Why did you get involved with PFS?

AH: I joined PFS because I wanted to help and give back a little of what I receive every day.

PFS: How does volunteering with PFS help DSM employees live out their purpose?

AH: I believe volunteering with PFS is a good way for DSM employees to ‘Do Something Meaningful.’ Volunteering is about a one hour a week commitment and you get to use your skills and knowledge to help better the lives of others.

PFS: What is the most interesting thing you’ve learned while volunteering with PFS?

AH: You can have a great impact and help others with little time investment.

PFS: If someone is interested in volunteering but may be hesitant to start, what would you say to them?

AH: Just try it! Once you try it for yourself you will see how great the opportunity truly is.

The national dish of Nigeria, Jollof Rice, is a spicy staple food served around the country and gets its signature bright red color from tomatoes. The country is now the second largest producer of fresh tomatoes in Africa. Yet despite that, it is also one of the world’s largest importers of tomato paste. In an effort to strengthen domestic markets for tomato growers, Tomato Jos, a tomato farm based in northern Nigeria, wanted to expand their operations and start making their own tomato paste. Given that this was uncharted territory for the company and their team, they looked to Partners in Food Solutions (PFS) for support in the areas of warehouse space design, staffing, process optimization, and packaging design.

DSM’s Florian Jardin took on the project manager “Client Lead” role for all of these projects with Tomato Jos. “I was drawn to helping them because of the social impact I could directly have,” said Florian. “I want to use my strengths to support start-ups with a great purpose and PFS let me do that with Tomato Jos this past year.” Florian, a global category manager at DSM, used his skills and expertise to not only make sure projects moved along in a timely manner, he also shared business and distribution strategy recommendations with the client CEO. “Initially I was a bit afraid to fail and let the client down, but after the first call I had a great feeling because I knew the volunteer team and I could bring real value to the client and help them reach their goals.”

Within weeks the volunteer project team was able to develop an efficient warehouse design plan that addressed gaps in Tomato Jos’ storage systems, which could now lead to significant cost savings. Volunteers were also able to recreate packaging design files that suited the client’s needs.

“Our experience working with PFS has been very positive,” said Francis Bulus, processing project manager for Tomato Jos. “Considering the fact that our core business objectives for the year revolve around setting up the factory and running it efficiently, the ongoing support from the PFS team, which has helped push a lot of that forward, has been invaluable. It’s to the point that it’s had a ripple effect on the company as a whole because a lot of the decisions constructed by the support from the team translated into smart business decisions across other business units.”