企业家创造的一条新「食物链」 2017-04-22

文章来源：http://time.com/collection-post/4684788/oscar-ekponimo-next-generation-leaders/

该文章是TIME杂志的新生代领导者（Next Generation Leaders）专题的文章

The Entrepreneur Creating a New Food Chain

by Kate Samuelson

date: March 2, 2017

Now 30 and a skilled software engineer living in Abuja, Ekponimo is working to ensure others do not suffer as he did. He has developed an app called Chowberry, which connects grocery stores and supermarkets with NGOs and charities to put wasted or leftover food to use. As packaged food items near the end of their shelf life, the app initiates discounts that grow larger the longer the products remain unsold. Local aid groups and other selected nonprofits are alerted about these discounts and also when supermarkets are giving food away for free. Food that would otherwise have gone in the trash is instead distributed to orphanages and needy families.

Ekponimo现在已经是一位居住于阿布贾（尼日利亚首都）的30岁经验丰富的软件工程师，他的工作是确保其他人不再像他以前一样挨饿。他开发了一个名为Chowberry的应用，其功能是将杂货店和超市与非政府组织（Non-Governmental Organizations，NGOs）和慈善机构联系在一起，以达到将浪费的食物再次利用。当食物接近保质期时，应用会自动打折，存留待售时间越长的商品折扣就会越大。当地的一些援助团体和其他选定的非盈利组织都会得到这些折扣的通知，当超市免费提供食物时他们也会得到通知。那些即将扔掉的食物可以分配到孤儿院和所需家庭。

Last year his team of four completed a three-month pilot involving 20 retailers and fed around 150 orphans and vulnerable children. “Our system helped [orphanages] cut down on their spending by more than 70%,” he says. Although every small retailer Ekponimo has approached in Nigeria has embraced Chowberry, he says, larger companies have been slow to adopt the technology, mainly because of red tape. “That’s been my biggest challenge.”

去年（2016年）他的四个团队完成了三个月的试点，包括20个零售商的参加并将食物提供给大约150个孤儿和弱势儿童。他说：「我们的系统帮助（孤儿院）降低了多于70%的花费」。虽然Ekponimo在尼日利亚接触到的所有小型零售商都加入了Chowberry，但是大型的公司对于这项新技术调整很慢，主要由于其内部的繁文缛节。「这是我遇到的主要挑战。」