Coffee Flour™ Selected as LAUNCH Food Innovator
Seattle, WA (February 2, 2017) — Coffee Flour™ has been selected by the LAUNCH Food program as a 2017 innovator. This prestigious network-centred program brings together a cohort of food and agricultural disruptors whose work has the potential to elevate healthier choices, broaden access to nutritious food, and ultimately improve health outcomes through food around the globe. Selected out of nearly 300 applications submitted by changemakers across 74 countries, Coffee Flour will be one of twelve innovations showcased at the LAUNCH Forum on March 30th and 31st at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
Every year billions of pounds of coffee cherry fruit, a byproduct of coffee production, are discarded or, to a lesser extent, composted into fertilizer. Rather than leaving these cherries to rot in heaps or pollute local rivers, Coffee Flour uses a proprietary method to convert them into a nutrient-dense and distinctly flavorful culinary ingredient that is high in fiber, protein, potassium, calcium, and iron. Coffee Flour’s business model also provides supplemental income for smallholder farmers and creates additional jobs at local coffee mills, turning what was once waste into an economic boost to coffee-growing communities around the globe.
Through participation in the LAUNCH Food network, Coffee Flour will raise its visibility within a community of health and nutrition-focused investment partners, market leaders and technical experts, as well as philanthropic, NGO and public sector actors who are committed to accelerating the adoption and scale of innovative solutions. Coffee Flour hopes to broaden the remit of coffee growing communities that are engaged in Coffee Flour production in order to expand its environmental and economic impact; integrate into food distribution programs and other channels that can reach nutritionally vulnerable populations; and strengthen the evidence of impact with respect to environmental, economic, and nutritional outcomes.
“We are honored to be a part of a select cohort of mission-driven food innovators from around the globe,” says Coffee Flour Vice President Dipika Matthias, “Through the LAUNCH Food program, we hope to establish a network of partners that can help accelerate progress towards our vision of transforming coffee-growing communities though significant environmental, economic, and nutritional impact.”
“I founded Coffee Flour in an effort to turn what was previously an environmental nuisance into an economically and logistically viable source of nutrition and revenue for coffee-growing communities,” says Dan Belliveau, founder and CEO of Coffee Flour. “We are thrilled to work with the LAUNCH Food program as we seek to expand Coffee Flour’s global impact ”
About Coffee Flour
Coffee Flour provides a unique combination of nutrition and impact that empower our customers to change the future of food. Coffee Flour transforms coffee fruit pulp, a former waste product, into a nutrient-rich ingredient. Poised to reinvent not only the coffee industry, but also inspire like-minded organizations to rethink their existing food production systems, Coffee Flour is a powerful new addition to the global menu.
Coffee Flour is an agricultural innovation structured as a for profit business generating for benefit results with bases in Vancouver, Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. Visit http://www.coffeeflour.com to learn more.
About LAUNCH
LAUNCH’s mission is to build and nurture a community of innovators, thought leaders, and decision makers across value chains to collectively understand, articulate and scale solutions for positive systems change leading to a more sustainable society. LAUNCH combines the disruptive potential of cross-disciplinary thinking with the proven utility of established industries, allowing us to build a new paradigm for the future.
Founding partners NASA, NIKE, Inc. the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S Department of State formed LAUNCH in an effort to bring collective genius, unprecedented networks, and new resources to overcome some of humanity’s toughest sustainability challenges. LAUNCH aims to move beyond incremental change and make an impact at a systemic level.
