Category

Interviews

Apr 13
0

Let’s rewind on Eat Up Östersund #2

By | Interviews

Gomorron was one of the stations during Eat Up Östersund. Jenny Sandström, founder & delegate, ANSWERED SOME OF OUR QUESTIONS TWO MONTHS AFTER THE EVENT.

 

In a few words, please tell us what Eat Up meant to you. 

Eat Up is a social and relaxed event. People from all ages and all areas came to Gomorron this day. People were curious about the place. There was a big interest from different people.

Why did you join Eat Up? Why did you want to be a station?

Since Food in Action is part of the Gomorron community, it was natural to host a station here. Gomorron is a creative place and community; we love having this kind of event here.

Would you like to be part of an Eat Up network regrouping all Eat Up stations?

Yes, I’d love to create partnerships with the other stations. It would be a nice value.

Do you consider yourself a Nordic style company?

You can put so much in “Nordic life style”. We are a “mountain lifestyle hub”. A lot of members in the crew are mountain lovers. The community consists of a lot of people who moved here because of the mountain lifestyle. We promote a healthy lifestyle. We just started a partnership with Svenska Turistföreningen: we have workspaces in the mountain now.

SO, IF LIKE JENNY, YOU LIKE THE MOUNTAIN BOOK YOUR TICKETS FOR EAT UP IN ÅRE HERE !

Apr 09
0

Let’s rewind on Eat Up Östersund #1

By | Interviews

Storsjöhyttan was one of the stations of Eat Up Östersund. Nilla Eneroth, one of the two glass blowers, answered some of our questions two months after the event.

 

In a few words, tell us what Eat Up meant to you.

I’m grateful for the good local food we can get, here, in Östersund and which was displayed during Eat Up. Eat Up was very fun. It was a great day. It was something different.

A hundred years ago, it was a tradition in the glass factories to eat in the workshop, to offer guests some food. So when we hosted Chef Richard Nystad during Eat Up it felt very natural to have food cooked and served in our factory.

Is this event going to make you change things about your company to make it more representative of Östersund, the “Nordic lifestyle” or more sustainable?

We already were in the Nordic Style mood before the event.

Fotocred: https://www.storsjohyttan.com

We are a sustainable company: we reuse raw materials from another glass factory. The advantages with that are foremost the low melting temperature and thus the low energy consumption. Moreover there are no melting gases to pollute the working environment because all the glass ingredients are already encapsulated. We are also very proud to have one of the least energy consuming glass melting furnaces, an electric Finish day furnace, which has a daily capacity of 80 kg /40 litres of melted glass. And we are local. Customers buy our products instead of something that has travel. Sustainability, it’s all about being smart.

Would you like to keep joining Food in Action projects?

We have been working with Fia since we opened in 1995, hosting Jazz concerts and pop up diners in our factory. So, yes, of course we want it to go on! We would love to be part of the next Eat Up Östersund.

What has been the financial impact of this event for your company?

Some participants bought products. Some people who first came years ago remembered us. Some came for the first time. But beyond the financial aspect, we did it for the fun and to be part of this great crEATive day. And I really wish I wasn’t working next Saturday to be able to attend Eat Up Åre, as a participant and not as a station.

So if like Nilla you would like to attend our next Eat Up in Åre, book your tickets here!

Mar 20
0

Eat Up – Food Walks a tool of social change and sustainable development

By | Articles, Interviews

Some weeks ago we had the pleasure of interviewing David Medina Andrade. An innovative social entrepreneur and psychologist, he graduated from Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz and founded his own organization to improve the mental health of adolescent victims of armed conflict. In their first year, they were awarded the prize fellowship Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative created by former President Barack Obama.

Fundacion Qubo partner of Eat Up in Bogota.

The Foundation will provide hosts for the 10 stations in Bogotá. The main goal of the alliance is to promote new ways of enjoying gastronomy as a cultural expression and empower Colombian teenagers to use their talents and gain social and cultural benefits.

One of the main goals of Eat Up and Food in Action is to improve the world we live in through gastronomy.

What is Fundacion Qubo?

Fundación Qubo is in honor of Rubik´s cube, in gratitude for his creativity and for developing intelligence with his game. Fundación Qubo empowers adolescents and young people by teaching them entrepreneurship, innovation, and Civil Rights to influence the government, private companies and civil society. We believe that young people can develop projects and their companies as well as obtain a better impact and influence when they know how to obtain financial and technical resources from government, private companies and civil society to make their dream come true and do what they really want to do, not what life offers them.

Why entrepreneurship, innovation and Civil Rights (Human Rights)?

Entrepreneurship is the essence of human being. To seek objectives, opportunities, persuasion, independence, and trustfulness are competencies that all human being use to get what they want. However, sometimes they use them only to do what they have to do because of a lack of resources. We want and believe that they can accomplish their dreams, even if they do not have the means, the leverage, and power to do it.

Innovation, because, time demonstrates us that every second, things are changing. We cannot solve a problem with old initiatives that have failed. We need to constantly reinvent to obtain betters results.

And Civil Rights because as a human being you cannot be an entrepreneur and innovator who does not respect other’s freedom and discriminate others due to their sexual orientation, sex, gender, religion, race, nationality. As an entrepreneur, you must see just knowledge and abilities to work with the people, not what they think about politics or who they love.

Picture of David Medina Andrade

David Medina Andrade

How will an education promoting entrepreneurship help young people in Colombia?

Youth Unemployment was 15.8%  in 2017. It is one of the highest rates in Latin America. If we teach young people how to avoid to be unemployed, and furthermore, how they can achieve their dreams and gain experience with their projects, we are going to decrease this rate.

Who are your partners?

This project is being developed with the support of Constructora Bolívar (Bolívar Construction Company), one of the companies belonging to one of the most important economic enterprise groups in Colombia, called Grupo Bolívar.

Qubo did an alliance with this company to work with the residents of complexes built by Constructora Bolívar: 30 adolescents and young residents of Parque Campestre (Countryside Park) in Soacha, Cundinamarca, a village with several problems of criminal gangs, extreme poverty, micro- traffic and forced displacement. Our objective is to co-create at least 5 projects to benefit their community and benefiting themselves with the incomes that will generate those social enterprises, while they are learning basic knowledge about gastronomy. Besides, this project will be supported by Sena and its trainers who are going to teach them how to cook.

What is PazArte el tazón and why did you choose gastronomy as a tool to train the participants of the course?

PazArte el Tazón is a program to train adolescents in entrepreneurship and innovation thought gastronomy. It uses dialogue in the kitchen as a tool to obtain new solutions to problems in their communities. Gastronomy is a cultural expression. Not everyone likes sports but everyone eats. And gastronomy is not just the study of food. It is about why people use restaurants to make meetings or bars to do business.

We believe that gastronomy is a cultural art belonging to everyone. Gastronomy is about relationships, created when people cook and eat, so, it is a great tool to train our participants with UnderStake methodology.

Picture of David Medina Andrade

David Medina Andrade

What do you think about the collaboration between Food in Action – Eat up and your NGO?

I see in Food In Action and Eat Up the entrepreneurship. I think that this collaboration will provide us with a new experience. We will learn how to better use gastronomy to empower and motivate teenagers who like cooking and create projects.

Through this partnership, Fundacion Qubo offers a first job opportunity in gastronomy to the teenagers he supports. As for Food In action, the company continues its commitment to sustainable, socially inclusive food.

Find more information on Eat Up – Food walks here

More information on Fundacion Qubo here (in Spanish only)

Edited by Maïssoun Chami