ARK's DIY Toolkit

Farmers in the developing world who feed the world cannot feed their kids and keep them in school. In the Philippines alone, 1/3rd of kids are malnourished, most of them live in rural areas, and many of them drop-out by the 3rd grade. 

The toolkit will enable farmers and communities to secure their food, kids’ schooling, and income all on their own. It is based on ARK’s proven 5-cent School Lunch program that buys 100% indigenous, seasonal and organic vegetables and protein from parents and the local community. The ARK Lunch gives farmers who live on $3/day a new market and inspires them to create gardens in their backyard and in school. It leverages ARK’s 10-year experience of serving a million lunches at 5-cents in 16 partner communities that reduced malnutrition from 30% to 0, increased school attendance from 70% to 95%, and created new income and market. 

We are solving food insecurity at the source. According to FAO, 815+ million people are hungry every day, over 60% or 500+ million are smallholder farmers in the developing world. 

In the Philippines, farmers suffer hunger and malnutrition due to:

1. Chemical farming. Synthetic pesticides have rendered the soil dead, required farmers to buy more fertilizers, made farmers sick, and left them with only 2-3 harvests per year from 1 crop (rice or corn) that net $1,500/year or $3/day in income. Before, farmers planted holistically and were healthy. In one paddy, farmers had fish, duck, rice and vegetables that nourished their families. 

2. Limited market, no leverage.  There is only one buyer of rice and corn in a village. In the past 10 years, farmers were paid $0.24/kilo for unhusked rice while costs of input, vegetables and protein have gone up. To buy a kilo of mung bean, a farmer must sell 6 kilos of rice. With limited cash, farmers will only plant what they know someone will buy.  

By creating a market for organic vegetables grown in backyards, farmers will plant for their consumption, and can earn weekly (versus quarterly) on diverse and higher margin products. 

We want to share a Toolkit that rural communities can use to solve hunger and malnutrition, and secure their food, kid’s schooling and new income all on their own.

This Toolkit will be an application on smartphones or online, which 37% of the population in the developing world have access to; and as a printable manual that anyone with a 3rd-grade degree can understand and do with their community.

The Toolkit, based on the proven 5-cent ARK Lunch, will be a step-by-step guide on how to:

a. Lead, gain buy-in and partner with other leaders and stakeholders

b. Dream, solve, divide the work, and achieve goals

c. Create backyard and school gardens

d. Capture all and buy 100% from the community

e. Inspire every participant to volunteer and contribute to the venture

The venture can be a self-sustaining school lunch program that parents operate and fully pay for, or a vegetable cooperative that buys from the community and sells to neighboring villages and nearby towns.

The Toolkit will have a nominal fee and will give access to monthly online ARK workshops that solve common issues. Those who need more help can consult privately with ARK for a higher fee.  

The farmers in rural Philippines whom we partnered with in the past 10 years share the same dream. They want to stand on their own, feed their kids and send them to school, and have new and consistent income. They are not alone. Every year, ARK gets requests from organizations, social impact-minded individuals to bring the 5-cent ARK Lunch to their part of the world.

In 2019, four communities in Sierra Leone used our Philippine-based instruction sheets to build gardens in school and a lunch program all on their own. It is these communities along with our partners in the Philippines who are either self-sustaining or on the path that inspired us to create a Toolkit that will enable rural communities in the developing world who are struggling with hunger to solve for themselves.

The Toolkit will give communities the chance to unite and the confidence to solve together. Parents and community members will make new income right away. Families will be healthy. Kids will stay in school and advance. Mothers and fathers will learn new skills and will be dreaming of new ventures. They will inspire neighboring villages and other leaders to build a self-sustaining future.

The Toolkit will be the first of its kind. It solves for a community’s self-sustainability and food security on an app and a printed document.

It will feature the only lunch program in the world that parents contribute to day one and fully fund after 3 years. Its contents are based on a 10-year track record. Its creation is based on the belief that people who are living with the problem have the best solution. They just need other people to believe in them, a proven construct, and examples to inspire them to do it on their own.

Most international development organizations that address food security do not solve from within or for solutions that their target audience can afford. ARK Lunch is 5 cents because that is the amount that most parents who make $3/day can afford to give their kids as allowance every day. The parents set the budget. China and India’s state funded feeding programs cost 10x ARK Lunch because they outsource the lunch to catering companies who deliver to schools. ARK buys 100% from parents and the community, who then volunteer to operate the program. Other food solution programs ship grain from other continents and believe they know better than the locals on what food is best for them. ARK co-invests $7,500 in its partner communities. Millennium Villages was investing $750,000 per community.

It will connect self-determining communities with each other to share solutions and kickstart a consulting or franchise-based relationship between ARK and serious communities.

The technologies fueling the Toolkit are:

1. Smartphone – as of 2017, 35% of the developing world have access to a smartphone. By downloading an app, individuals and communities will have access to a guide, trouble-shooting ideas, workshops.
2. Printed manual to help the majority of farmers and rural folks who do not have smart phones or have limited access to broadband. 
3. Facebook / WhatsApp – for communication and coordination as these platforms have incredible penetration of the rural areas in the developing world.
4. Behavioral science – From creating or marketing the toolkit to creating the toolkit, we will use behavioral science research to make sure that the toolkit is easy for the target audience to understand, implement and change.
5. Ancestral and low carbon path – the solutions that will be featured go back to how we used to farm with the environment, care and work together as a community, and keep food production closest to food consumption.

Social media platforms and apps have been making giant strides in the social impact space. In agriculture, multiple apps have sprung up in the past years for farmers to instantly connect with traders, gain insights in weather patterns, effective farming techniques and other ways to improve their productivity, and access financial services. 

A dedicated app for the toolkit will make it possible for partner communities to track and analyze data, share their impact, and collaborate and solve together with others. It will also allow us to take advantage of the opportunity on how to merge two worlds - modern technology and indigenous farming practices.

Easy to understand instructions will enable us to partner with more farmers and rural communities in the developing world where education is a problem afflicting many countries. With a well-thought out and science-approached design, we can sincerely enable farmers to lead and solve from within. 

By focusing on solutions from within, farmers can also shift to organic and sustainable farming practices that will heal their land and make it productive again. 

1.ACTIVITIES|PROVIDE NEW TOOLS TO FEED KIDS AND FAMILIES

ARK’s DIY Toolkit will enable rural communities to launch their venture based on the ARK 5-cent School Lunch.

This toolkit will guide communities to design a self-sustainable and affordable program for food security. It requires them to work together and maximize local resources and talent. They will create gardens, volunteer, buy ingredients from each other, and invest in themselves.

The program will feed farmers, their kids and families with fresh vegetables, while creating new economy.

Partnering with ARK is the first-touchpoint for many rural teachers and parents differently doing things--from designing sustainably to using spreadsheets and online calls.

2.OUTPUT|HEALTHIER KIDS, MORE RESOURCES, AND NEW SKILLS

With kids in school and eating, malnutrition is eliminated, attendance rise, and kids advance to high school and college.

By selling to the lunch, families earn new income. With a 5-cent lunch (1/10th the cost of a village lunch), families save money and work more. 

Community’s resources grow--more backyard gardens, harvests and vegetable variety, capital and labor investment.

Parents, teachers, and village leaders develop leadership and business skills, and unite towards common goals.

Malnutrition rates are reduced from as high as 40% to virtually 0%.

3.OUTCOME|MORE OPPORTUNITIES, HAPPY AND HEALTHY COMMUNITIES

Kids eat vegetables and get nourishment at a critical stage in their development. 

With food, kids and families feel secure and hopeful. Kids can discover new things, learn better, and dream.

With basic needs met and new income, parents can finally breathe and pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. When the community is hopeful and pursuing their passion, they are happier and work better together.

According to UNICEF and FAO, malnutrition leads to poor school performance, income reduction, and increased risk of developing diseases.

4.IMPACT|BETTER FUTURES,COMMUNITIES THAT INSPIRE THE WORLD

As communities secure their food and income, they solve more issues together and invest in themselves first.The change in behavior and mindset fuels their growth towards a self-sustaining future. 

The radical behavior change inspires other communities, reforms in government policy and social programs, and other philanthropic organizations and efforts, to restructure the sector to invest in self-sustainable solutions.

In the past 10 years, the ARK Lunch has fed and brought 5,000 kids back to school in 16 communities with 30,000 people. This year we have 7 active partner communities with 1,273 kids and a total population of 14,000.  

In the first year of launching the Toolkit, we would like to reach all 81 provinces in the Philippines. ARK’s DIY Toolkit to be downloaded by 4,200 villages (10% of all villages in the Philippines) and to have 420 communities who will implement the Toolkit all on their own. 

In five years, we would have tremendously scaled the ARK’s DIY Toolkit across the developing world. We want the Toolkit to be downloaded by 50,000 villages. We want 5,000 rural communities to be doing the Toolkit in their own communities, collaborating and connecting with others, and leading other farmers towards a self-sustaining path. 

 Within the next year, we plan to launch the Toolkit, partner with more communities and social impact investors so that we can further hone the program and the Toolkit. 

Within the next five years, we aim for:

1. Malnutrition to decline significantly in the Philippines - from 30-40% now down to 10%

2. Communities to have secured all their food needs and to have launched new ventures that are leading to new industries

3. More students advancing to high school and college, and leading their communities

4. Philippine partners to implement ARK Lunch and Ventures in other countries 

5. Sierra Leone partners to be beacons of self-sustainability in Africa 

6. An expansive global network of self sustaining communities who are sharing solutions with each other, trading with each other, and inspiring other rural communities in their regions to build a self sustaining path 

7. ARK to have a robust data analysis, solution sharing platform and consulting practice 

A few barriers we are preparing for are:

• Poor signal connection. Rural communities in the developing world have low data connectivity due to lack in telecommunication towers or broadband lines. They are limited to 2G signal that only allow for text messaging and direct calls. It is even more challenging for people in remote rural areas where there is no signal at all or no electricity to charge their mobile devices.

• Communities need more direct support in structuring the program. We are expecting a few communities to not immediately understand the program due to factors such as poor literacy rates and extreme difference in culture and behavior. 

• ARK might not have sufficient time to build up the infrastructure and talent base to provide direct support and guidance for the onslaught of demand to partner on Toolkit.

With connection issues, we will have a printed-out version of the Toolkit which will be similar to an IKEA furniture instruction, easy-to-understand with graphics and symbols, that will enable rural communities even in the most remote areas to do it all on their own.

ARK will create virtual gatherings to go over the Toolkit and solution in more detail. ARK will train former team leaders of the ARK Lunch to be guides and mentors to communities that are implementing the program. We will be creating monthly workshops to help solve pressing and common issues. 

ARK is also actively hiring right now in preparation for launching the Toolkit.

The solution team consists of 4 full-time staff members who are part of ARK’s core team and works on the day-to-day in the operations and development of the organization. The team includes 3 board and advisory members who will be hands-on in designing and scaling of the Toolkit on a volunteer basis. We will also consult with experts in tech, behavior science, and design.

ARK is global and everyone works remotely. The solution team consists of the CEO (in NYC), the Impact and Operations Director (Manila), Relationship/Scaling Officer (Capiz), Toolkit copywriter (San Francisco), Toolkit graphic designer (Manila), Toolkit app(Seattle, Milan).

The solution team is diverse and experienced. 

Ayesha Vera-Yu, ARK’s CEO, is a farmer and former investment banker. She turned around her family farm from chemical to organic, the first one in the province. She was also the youngest Director and Business Team Leader at BNP Paribas, where she worked for 11 years in syndications, acquisition finance and leverage finance structuring multi-million and billion loans for middle-market to large corporate clients across many industries. 

Adrian Bonifacio, ARK’s Impact and Operation Director, is a corporate-trained business graduate with 8-year experience in structuring solutions and tracking impact.

Marilou Demo, ARK Relationship Officer who is a farmer and a resident of rural Capiz where ARK operates, provides insights on community dynamics and behavior. 

Shaina Tantuico, Toolkit copywriter, is co-founder of JeepNeed, which creates science-and math-based learning for students. She contributes her expertise in designing workshops and toolkits that teachers can easily implement. 

Kyla Tinio, Toolkit graphic designer, is ARK’s Marketing and Engagement designer. She will design the Toolkit in a way that it is easy-to-understand and implement.

Camille Malonzo, a software engineer for Microsoft, will design and create the digital platform for the Toolkit. She will integrate data analytics tools and management systems in low-bandwidth communities to enable high quality insights. 

Patrick Nee, Toolkit Adviser, is an MIT alum, a software, life science and mining entrepreneur, and is ARK’s volunteer CTO. He brings over 20+ years in software development. Patrick founded and operated successful software development ventures including Yappr.com and Priceline WebHouse.

1. The Greenbaum Foundation and Google  invested in Feed Back, a nourishing vegetable relief for farmers and their families during COVID-19 pandemic and hunger season of June to August

2. Nestle featured ARK on its global Nestlé for Healthier Kids program as a leader in solving malnutrition and leading healthy lives

3. NBA, BNP Paribas, Winston and Strawn sponsored our fundraising events
   

4. Morgan Stanley partnered to restructure and make the organization sustainable

5. Jewish Teen Foundation and JP Morgan for capital projects

6. Filipino American college clubs in the Northeast and Midwest for the lunch and scholars program

7. Milbank Tweed and SyCipLaw provides pro bono counsel

8. WEF featured ARK and made Ayesha a Young Global Leader for leading at the edge of social impact and international development

To create the most impact, we will:

1. Enable any rural Community in the developing world who want to do it for themselves to get access to the Toolkit which they can download for a nominal fee. This is similar to publishing a self-help book. The Toolkit will be structured and designed that anyone with a 3rd-grade degree can understand and find confidence to gather their friends and neighbors to galvanize and lead the community. It will also be designed so that a Catalyst whether a social impact investor, individual, foundation, corporation or government who wants to invest in a community or region can do so in a catalytic way versus a colonistic and hand-out way.

2. Create a franchise system whereby Catalysts or Communities with the Toolkit can be members of the ARK network. They will gain access to the lesson learned in the last 10 years, the new innovations we are creating with our partner communities, and the solutions we are working on site with our partner communities. To be part of the network, they will pay an annual membership fee that will be progressive - higher for corporations and governments, lower for individuals, nonprofits and Communities.

3. Consult and solve direct for Catalysts or Communities who are encountering complex issues or need hands-on help to design and implement the system in their communities. 

Solve will help us design and share the Toolkit to more rural communities in the developing world; and restructure ARK’s business plan to maximize impact and create sustainability for the organization for the next 10 years. 

Specifically for the Toolkit, Solve has access to people and resources who can provide strategic tech and process advise in the creation of the smartphone app and the printed instruction. Solve draws seasoned problem solvers and designers from various industries who can advise ARK on how to integrate and best create a revenue stream from the Toolkit and consulting activities. Solve and MIT can also introduce and connect us to potential partners who want to seed and fund for communities’ self sustaining future.

Funding partners will enable us to create, design and scale the toolkit in the next year. Critical to the success of ARK’s DIY Toolkit is in the design of the platform where rural communities can collaborate and connect with each other. We are seeking for partners who would want to invest and provide guidance as we design a platform that will work best in rural and remote areas who have limited data connection. We are also looking for experts who can guide us in the business model of the consulting and franchising aspect of the toolkit.

We want to partner and collaborate with like-minded individuals, social impact investors, organizations and institutions are working in health, food security, sustainable agriculture and nourishing food systems. We are looking for catalysts who will champion our solution to rural communities in their own countries, and want to lead at the edge, be hyper focused on results and impact, and sincerely want farmers to stand on their own. 

ARK's 5-cent School lunch in our partner communities is run by mostly women teachers and parents. In volunteering to lead the program, they gain critical leadership and business as the work calls for them to identify and prioritize issues, propose solutions, gain buy-in from multiple stakeholders, manage the program, analyze results in excel, be connected via email and social media, and collaborate and coordinate within the community and with ARK. These women leaders are exposed to new ideas, new ways of engagement, and new people and mentors from different industries and backgrounds from many parts of the world. They complete their leadership role with a ton of confidence and opportunity to get promoted, earn more income and to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. They become an inspiration for everyone - both women and men, mothers and fathers, and girls and boys. 

We also engage with fathers who come to school and volunteer to make lunches, tend the gardens or lead the program. They become more involved in their kids’ health and school, and in sharing parental and household duties with their wives. 

By investing in ARK’s DIY Toolkit, Vodafone Americas Foundation will catalyze more women farmers to find a platform to lead their own families and communities towards a self-sustaining path, and collaborate with each other. You will enable them to secure their income, food and get their kids to finish their schooling. You will directly impact the lives of girls as they become healthy, graduate and dare go after dreams.