Meet Elise Kendall. She's one of 10 finalists for the 2016 Waislitz Global Citizen Award, which gives a total of $100,000 to three individuals who excel in their work to end extreme poverty. And she needs you to vote to make her one of the three winners! After Global Citizens around the world pick their three favorites, an expert panel of judges will rank them in first, second, and third place. Elise could win up to $50,000 with your help! Vote here.
Name of Applicant: Elise Kendall
Organization: KinoSol SBC
Title / Position: Cofounder&CCO
Issue Areas: Girls & Women | Health | Education | Food & Hunger
Region of Work: Africa, India, South America, Southeast Asia
About KinoSol
A KinoSol unit is a small-scale, solar-powered dehydrator for fruits, vegetables, grains, and insects. It is fully powered with natural solar energy and uses no electric inputs. Whether you live in bustling Shanghai or deep in the Andes Mountains, we have a unit that easily preserves produce of all kinds. The goal of KinoSol is to end food waste, increase nutrient availability, and improve the livelihoods of subsistence farmers around the world. Today, one third of all food produced is wasted. KinoSol is working to save this third.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to end post-harvest loss, improve global health, and create entrepreneurial opportunities for subsistence farmers around the world.
Why Elise Should Win This Award
My name is Elise Kendall, and together with Ella Gehrke, Clayton Mooney, and Mikayla Sullivan, we are Global Citizens. KinoSol began as the simple goal of improving the lives of rural families. In our travels, we witnessed hungry farmers who worked all day to grow food that ended up rotting. One third of all food on earth is wasted, which hits hardest for small-scale subsistence farmers. We had a passion to preserve this preventable loss, and this led us to create a simple tool called KinoSol.
KinoSol is driven by a purpose for social good to help those lacking life’s basic necessities. At its current core, KinoSol is a product solution startup, able to offer humanitarian organizations an answer to a major agricultural problem in developing regions. KinoSol units are small-scale, solar-powered dehydrators. They can dehydrate fruit, vegetables, grains, and insects. Each unit includes built-in storage capable of lengthening shelf-life and allows dehydrated goods to be consumed later.
KinoSol originated in September of 2014. The first year was spent on research and development of a sustainable food dehydrator that would be ideal for families in developing countries. In September of 2015, KinoSol incorporated as a Specific Benefit Corporation in Minnesota, with headquarters in Iowa. The company’s primary mission is to decrease post-harvest loss. KinoSol wanted to be held accountable to decrease food waste on a global scale. As a Specific Benefit Corporation, KinoSol is legally bound to work to fulfill its mission.
KinoSol currently has partnerships in Uganda, El Salvador, Haiti, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Somalia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Cambodia, U.S Virgin Islands, Brazil, South Africa, and Japan with 16 different NGOs, churches, and aid organizations that have successfully conducted or are currently conducting field-testing of international units.
International KinoSol unit pricing ($250) was determined by customer discovery surveys, research, and current material costs. The majority of international unit sales are directed toward non-profits, which then carry out delivery to the end users (subsistence farmers) as part of their humanitarian efforts. KinoSol will sell domestic units direct to the end users (consumers in urban areas or cooler climates). The company’s objectives over the next three years will be to reach sustainability and profitability through sales of both international and domestic units. With this funding, KinoSol will continue creating products that will decrease food waste. In addition to further developing the product line, KinoSol will continue to expand its global reach by continually establishing additional international partnerships. In the long term, KinoSol will achieve reduction in post-harvest loss and food waste on a global scale.
Learn More:
Twitter: @KinoSolAg
Instagram: KinoSolAg
Facebook: KinoSol