Enactus Memorial has earned the chance to defend its national title after three wins at the Enactus Canada regional championship in Halifax, N.S.
The team of undergraduate students from Memorial University took first place in the Capital One Financial Education Challenge, the Scotiabank Youth Empowerment Challenge and the TD Entrepreneurship Challenge with a new project called SmartCookie, which aims to provide healthy breakfasts for school-aged children across Canada.
Nutrition gap
Taylor Young, a commerce student at the Faculty of Business Administration and president of Enactus Memorial, says work on the new project began just four months ago.
In that short time, they created jobs for two at-risk young people at Choices for Youth to produce SmartCookie. Pre-sales of the product reached almost 6,000 in four days after last week’s official launch.
Ms. Young says the team decided on the project because of the “alarming need” for food security and access to nutrition for Canada’s youth.
“Canada is the only country in the G7 without a national school food program and, according to UNICEF, we rank 37th out of 41 high-income countries for providing young people with access to nutrition,” she said.
“We hope to impact Canadian kids nationwide by providing them with breakfast programs in schools and to provide Canadians of all ages with a healthy, affordable snack option.”
Feeding hungry children
Enactus Memorial won its previous two national championships and one world title on the success of Project Sucseed, which used hydroponics to address food insecurity in Canada’s northern regions. That project is in the process of transitioning to a self-sufficient social enterprise.
With SmartCookie, Enactus Memorial continues to look at food security concerns for Canadians. After extensive product testing with dietitians to ensure nutritional concerns were being met, and with kids taste testing the product, the group launched SmartCookie, an edible chocolate chip cookie dough that can be purchased online in packs of eight or 30.
“Our team has been working hard to have a meaningful impact with SmartCookie . . . so we can’t wait to share that story with the rest of the country this May.”
For every unit of SmartCookie sold, Enactus Memorial donates a meal to a child in need through school breakfast programs.
Enactus Memorial also placed second in the Scotiabank EcoLiving Green Challenge at regionals.
“We are so excited to once again represent our university at the national exposition,” said Ms. Young. “Our team has been working hard to have a meaningful impact with SmartCookie, particularly to do that in such a short amount of time, so we can’t wait to share that story with the rest of the country this May.”
Enactus Memorial will compete at the Enactus Canada national exposition from May 14-16 in Toronto, Ont.
