ClimateNourish

Sanku is tackling the profound challenge of malnutrition which disproportionately affects the most vulnerable populations, particularly in regions hit hardest by climate change. In sub-Saharan Africa, where we primarily operate, malnutrition is a pervasive issue that significantly impacts millions of people, including women and children who are most at risk. The United Nations estimates that 278 million people are malnourished, with 55 million children under five stunted, indicating chronic malnutrition.

In the communities we serve, notably in Kenya and Tanzania, over 70% of the population lives below the poverty line, earning less than $5 a day. This economic hardship limits access to nutritious foods, perpetuating a cycle of poor health that affects growth, immunity, and overall development. Every day, malnutrition contributes to the deaths of approximately 170 children under five in Kenya alone, with Tanzania reporting nearly 100,000 preventable deaths annually due to malnutrition-related conditions.
Sanku addresses this issue by partnering with small and medium-scale millers to fortify staple foods like maize flour, which is a dietary staple for most of the population in these countries. Our innovative fortification technology, the Dosifier, allows for precise nutrient additions, ensuring that flour consumed by these communities meets their nutritional needs without altering the taste or cost of the food. This solution not only targets the immediate nutritional deficits but also supports long-term public health and resilience against the worsening impacts of climate change on food security.
By focusing on fortification at the point of milling, Sanku ensures that essential nutrients reach those who are most in need, bypassing the barriers that traditional large-scale fortification programs often encounter. This localized approach is critical in making a sustainable impact in the fight against global malnutrition and supporting communities as they adapt to the challenges posed by climate change.

Sanku's solution embodies an advanced food fortification technology that intricately weaves essential vitamins and minerals into staple foods. Central to this process is the Dosifier, an innovative device utilized by millers during the milling process to enrich staple flours—such as maize—with crucial nutrients like iron, zinc, and vitamin A. This transformative technology converts everyday food items into carriers of health, particularly targeting those most susceptible to malnutrition.

The operational mechanics of the Dosifier are straightforward yet profoundly impactful. Installed directly within local mills, it precisely measures and integrates the appropriate amount of micronutrient premix into the flour during its processing. This precision ensures consistent quality and nutrition without altering the food's natural taste or texture, thus facilitating widespread acceptance and integration into local diets. Designed for ease of use and cost-efficiency, the Dosifier is pivotal for sustainable scaling, meeting the nutritional demands of expansive populations efficiently.
The utilization of Dosifiers provides multifaceted benefits. For millers, it automates the nutrient addition process, significantly reducing labor costs and minimizing human error, which in turn enhances operational efficiency. For consumers, it ensures access to nutritionally enhanced food without additional costs, thereby addressing not just immediate nutritional deficits but fostering long-term health benefits across communities.
Sanku's implementation strategy involves a collaborative approach with a robust network of local millers, government bodies, and nutrition experts. This comprehensive engagement includes identifying appropriate milling facilities, installing Dosifiers, training operators, and establishing stringent monitoring systems to ensure compliance with fortification standards. Sanku’s commitment extends beyond installation, providing ongoing support and technical assistance to optimize dosifier functionality and ensure sustained quality in fortified food production.
Sanku's technology has been adopted by over 1,136 mills, effectively reaching approximately 10.5 million individuals at an impressively economical rate of $0.36 per person. This extensive reach demonstrates the potent social impact achievable through innovative technology tailored to meet local needs and capacities.
Sanku’s technology contributes significantly to environmental sustainability. By integrating Dosifiers into local milling operations, the technology enhances the efficiency of food production processes, thereby minimizing waste and reducing energy consumption. Direct fortification at milling sites also cuts down the carbon footprint associated with transporting and processing additional nutritional supplements, thereby supporting sustainable food production practices.

Sanku’s approach fortifies the resilience of food systems by embedding essential nutrients directly into local food staples. This reduces dependency on imported nutritional solutions, which often have a larger environmental impact due to extensive processing and long supply chains. By promoting the use of locally sourced premixes and supporting small to medium-scale millers, Sanku not only bolsters local economies but also encourages sustainable agricultural practices essential for climate adaptation and mitigation.

Additionally, by improving the nutritional quality of food, Sanku’s method helps to reduce food waste, contributing to the development of a low-carbon, nutritious global food system. Each operational phase is meticulously optimized for sustainability, aligning with broader objectives of climate resilience. Through these sustainable practices, Sanku addresses both immediate nutritional needs and broader environmental challenges, underscoring a commitment to comprehensive and enduring impact.

Our solution serves communities that are especially vulnerable to malnutrition, and who aren’t reached by traditional large-scale industrial fortification supply chains. We partner with millers whose customers have a high incidence of poverty, i.e., ~95% of the people we serve live on less than $5 per day and struggle to purchase a diverse and nutritious diet. Instead, they rely on a calorie-dense but nutrient-poor diet. Not having enough nutrients can have significant and widespread impacts. In Kenya, for example, 170 children under five die every day from preventable illnesses caused by malnutrition, while in Tanzania, the numbers are even higher with nearly 100,000 preventable deaths occurring annually.  

Over 70% of the Kenyan and Tanzanian population are low-income (this amounts to about 81 million people). Our solution serves this demographic that is especially vulnerable to malnutrition and is not reached by traditional large-scale industrial fortification supply chains. Reaching low-income populations is mission-critical as they cannot afford fresh, nutritious foods and instead rely on calorie-dense but nutrient-poor maize flour for their meals. This makes them more susceptible to micronutrient deficiencies, leading to high rates of preventable illness and increased mortality from disease. 

Our impact speaks volumes. With our fortified flour reaching 10.5 million people, including 1.7 million women of reproductive age and over 400,000 children under five at risk of stunting, we are making tangible strides in improving nutrition outcomes. By our estimates, more than 300 maternal deaths are avoided annually through our efforts. But our impact goes beyond numbers. By giving communities access to healthy food, we are empowering women to lead healthier lives and increase their earning potential, breaking cycles of poverty and transforming entire communities for the better.

Sanku's team is deeply rooted in the communities we serve, primarily in East Africa, where the burden of malnutrition is profoundly felt. Our proximity to these communities is not just geographical but also personal. 95% of our team members hail from the very regions we work in, bringing firsthand understanding of the local challenges and a personal commitment to solving them. This direct connection fosters trust and cooperation between Sanku and the community stakeholders, ensuring our solutions are culturally aligned and community-approved.

Our CEO, Felix Brooks-church, co-founded Sanku after witnessing the devastating effects of malnutrition on communities in East Africa. His leadership is driven by a deep-seated passion for creating sustainable change through innovation in food security. Under his guidance, Sanku has grown to embody a team that is not only skilled but also exceptionally dedicated to our mission. 95% of our staff are East African, providing us with invaluable local insights and enabling agile and effective implementation of our projects.
The design and delivery of our solutions are continuously informed and refined by the communities we aim to serve. Our approach involves regular interaction with local millers—who play a crucial role in our distribution model—allowing us to gather feedback directly from the source. This feedback influences everything from the design of our Dosifiers to the nutritional composition of the fortificants we use, ensuring our interventions are both effective and welcomed by local populations.
We prioritize engaging women and youth in our programs, understanding that these groups are often the most affected by nutritional deficiencies. By empowering local millers, including a significant number of women millers, we foster economic opportunities within the communities, which in turn enhances the overall impact of our nutritional interventions.
Sanku’s commitment to community-led development is exemplified through our participatory approach, where community feedback is not only encouraged but actively sought and integrated into our program design. This ensures that our solutions are not only scientifically sound but also socially acceptable and tailored to meet the specific needs of the communities we serve.
Our team's deep connections to the region, combined with our collaborative and responsive operational model, uniquely position us to deliver this solution effectively. Our approach ensures that Sanku remains a community-focused organization, dedicated to delivering sustainable, impactful nutrition solutions guided by the very people we aim to serve.

We have reached the Scale stage. Over the years, we have successfully built and tested our innovative solution to combat malnutrition in East Africa. Specifically, we have developed and deployed our proprietary "Sanku Dosifier" technology, which accurately fortifies flour with essential nutrients at small-scale mills. This technology has undergone rigorous testing and refinement, ensuring its effectiveness and reliability in real-world settings.

To date, we have served over 10.5M people across East Africa. We have installed over 1,136 dosifiers and partnered with 1,156 millers in both Kenya and Tanzania. Our impact extends to vulnerable populations in rural and underserved communities, where access to fortified foods is limited. Through strategic partnerships and collaborations with local stakeholders, we have been able to scale our operations and reach more individuals in need.

We have established a strong foundation for further growth and expansion, positioning Sanku as a leader in the fight against malnutrition and food insecurity in the region. Moving forward, we remain committed to building on our successes and driving positive change for the communities we serve.

We are applying to Solve because we believe it offers a unique opportunity to overcome specific barriers that we face in scaling our solution and maximizing our impact. While our primary goal is not solely to raise funds, we recognize the value of Solve's platform in connecting Solver teams with partners who can provide both monetary and non-monetary support to advance our solution. One of the key challenges we face is securing funding as well as navigating regulatory frameworks as we scale into new countries as well as supply dosifiers and premix into new territories as we expand our operations and reach more communities in need. Solve's network of partners and investors can provide crucial financial support to help us scale our impact and sustainably address malnutrition and food insecurity.

We are confident that Solve's platform resonates with our mission to tackle global challenges through innovation and collaboration. The chance to access invaluable tools, resources, and networks will propel us further on our social entrepreneurship journey, aiming to reach 23 million people by 2025.

Sanku's solution addresses the dire malnutrition crisis in Africa with a novel approach that catalyzes systemic change in food fortification, particularly benefiting remote and vulnerable communities. While food fortification is a recognized strategy in many developed nations, its application in Africa faces unique challenges due to the decentralized nature of food production. Sanku innovates by adapting this proven method to local conditions, using a technology that significantly improves the way nutrients are integrated into staple foods at small-scale mills.

Our innovation lies in the Dosifier, a device that automates the fortification of maize flour—the staple diet in many East African communities. Unlike traditional fortification processes that require centralized production facilities, the Dosifier is installed directly at local mills. This proximity allows the fortification process to be deeply integrated into the community's existing food systems, ensuring that essential nutrients reach those who need them most without additional costs or changes to their dietary habits.
The Dosifier not only ensures precise nutrient mixing but is also internet-enabled, featuring remote-monitoring capabilities that track and analyze fortification data in real-time. This technological edge allows for continuous monitoring and quality control, which is critical in a fragmented market where small mills previously had no means to fortify food effectively. By making fortification feasible and cost-effective for small millers, Sanku is changing the landscape of nutrition in East Africa.
Economically, Sanku’s model promotes sustainability by addressing the cost barrier associated with nutrient procurement. By purchasing and reselling flour bags at a profit, the generated margin covers the cost of nutrients, allowing millers to provide fortified flour at no extra cost to consumers. This innovative funding mechanism is designed to sustain the fortification program without ongoing external aid, making it a scalable and replicable model in other regions.
Sanku's approach is environmentally conscious, aligning with the global mandate to reduce carbon emissions and enhance climate resilience. By localizing fortification processes, we significantly cut down on the carbon footprint associated with transporting fortified foods from centralized factories to rural communities. Additionally, our dosifiers are designed to operate with minimal energy consumption, further reducing the environmental impact.
The broad adoption of Sanku’s technology can catalyze a shift towards a low-carbon, nutritious global food system, demonstrating how targeted technological innovations can simultaneously address malnutrition and environmental sustainability. This positions Sanku not just as a solution to health challenges but also as a forward-thinking approach to ecological resilience, offering a blueprint for integrating nutritional security with climate action. Through this dual focus, Sanku aims to inspire other entities within the space to consider how their innovations can also make a positive impact on the planet while addressing critical human needs.

Sanku's theory of change outlines our systematic approach to combat malnutrition by installing IoT-enabled Dosifiers in local mills to ensure the production of fortified flour. This technology, complemented by training for mill operators and community education on nutrition, leads to increased availability and consumption of nutrient-enriched foods. The immediate outcomes include a higher production of fortified flour and enhanced community knowledge, which are expected to reduce micronutrient deficiencies and improve public health, particularly among children and women. Supported by evidence from global studies and our own evaluations, this approach is proven to be cost-effective and impactful, enhancing both health and economic productivity across communities.

Sanku’s mission is to end malnutrition by bringing fortified food to the hardest-to-reach and most vulnerable populations. Sanku fills a critical gap in the market and provides the end-to-end logistical and technical support to ensure that all families have access to the lifesaving, critical nutrients they need, such as iron, vitamin A, vitamin D, and Zinc. These nutrients are essential for optimal health and growth, cognitive development, and a strong immune system. With support from Sanku, millers can produce quality nutritious flour, and families can access affordable healthy food every day. Sanku fills the nutritional gap for thousands of families and prevents life-threatening conditions such as diarrhoea, which kills 750,000 African children annually.

We are currently reaching1 0.5 million people – including 1.7M women of reproductive age and more than 400,000 children (under the age of 5) at risk of stunting. Through our work, we estimate that more than 300 maternal deaths are avoided each year. By giving communities access to healthy food, Sanku empowers women to live healthy lives, increase their earning potential and breaking cycles of poverty. 
 
Our first external evaluation was conducted in 2017 by researchers from Helen Keller International and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It found that following Sanku's intervention and support to small maize mills in Tanzania’s Morogoro district, the availability/consumption of fortified flour at the household level reached 90% up from 2% in the previous years.  

Sanku's core technology is an innovative IoT-enabled fortification dosifier system. This system utilizes Internet of Things (IoT) technology to monitor and regulate the fortification process in real-time, ensuring accurate dosing of essential vitamins and minerals into staple foods such as flour. The dosifiers are equipped with sensors and connectivity features that enable remote monitoring and control from a central dashboard. 

This technology allows for precise adjustment of fortification levels based on factors such as flour quality and production volume, optimizing nutrient delivery while minimizing waste. Additionally, the dosifiers are designed to be user-friendly and easy to install, making them suitable for small and medium-scale milling operations in resource-constrained settings. By leveraging IoT technology, Sanku's dosifier system revolutionizes the fortification process, making it more efficient, cost-effective, and scalable, ultimately contributing to improved nutrition and food security outcomes for vulnerable populations.

We have a team of 103 staff - (99 Full Time staff, 4 casual laborers and 3 consultants), 95% East African professionals, 81 based in Tanzania, 16 in Kenya, 1 in Ethiopia, 2 in Australia, and 3 in the USA.

With over 15 years of evolution, Sanku's solution addresses malnutrition at the grassroots level, ensuring vital nutrients reach those who need them most. Our team has dedicated significant time and effort to refine and scale our innovative approach to combatting malnutrition and improving food security in East Africa. In 2010, Felix Brooks-church developed the "Sanku Dosifier" for small-scale fortification, which was installed in Tanzania in 2015. He led the engineering of the technology in partnership with Stanford University and created a proprietary “Sanku Dosifier” designed to put the exact right amount of nutrient mix into bags of flour for communities and families. Following testing at hundreds of small mills across East Africa, the first Dosifier was installed in Tanzania in 2015, following a request by the then-President Jakaya Kikwete. A market-based model in 2016 made fortified flour affordable. In 2018, cellular modules enabled real-time data tracking and automated processes

We are committed to a fair, transparent and competitive compensation policy, ensuring that every member of our team is recognized and valued for their work.  We are also dedicated to fostering an inclusive workplace and providing equal opportunities and accommodation for all. We do not tolerate any discrimination based on age, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or sexual orientation.

Among our workforce, 33% are female employees, while at the management level, 40% of our leaders are women. These are local experts who are connected to the communities being reached and who have decades of relevant experience in nutrition, supply chains, and logistics – across both public and private sectors. Sanku also has a strong board that includes expertise in people leadership, financial acumen, business strategy, and scaling innovation.

Our business model focuses on delivering fortified flour products to small and medium-scale millers in underserved communities across Africa. Our primary customers are millers who produce staple foods such as maize flour. Central to our model is our innovative Dosifier technology, which is integrated with local mills to accurately dispense essential nutrients into maize flour while preserving its taste and texture. This technology is equipped with internet-enabled and remote-monitoring capabilities, enabling the real-time transmission of crucial data regarding nutrition, production, and technical aspects.

To overcome the financial barriers faced by small mills in fortifying flour, Sanku developed a unique business model. Through bulk-buying flour bags at wholesale prices and retailing them to millers, the margins from each bag cover the nutrient costs and operational expenses. This approach enables millers to fortify their flour without incurring additional costs, making fortified flour available at the same price as non-fortified flour.

Currently, we have successfully partnered with over 1,156 mills, reaching 10.5 million people at a cost of only $0.36 per person. This demonstrates the scalability and impactful nature of Sanku's business model in addressing complex social challenges through innovative technology and strategic partnerships.

Sanku currently operates under a dual-funding model, which includes revenue generated from flour bag and premix sales, as well as philanthropic funding. Our revenue generation efforts are focused on selling fortified flour bags and premixes to millers and food producers. Additionally, we receive philanthropic support from a diverse range of sources, including individual donors, institutional partners, and corporate, private, and family foundations.

Looking ahead, our plan for financial sustainability involves several key strategies. First, we aim to further expand our revenue streams through our blending facility in Tanzania which will be the first facility in East Africa to supply premix not only in Tanzania but also to the rest of East African countries.

We recognize the importance of building long-term relationships with our donors and partners to ensure ongoing support for our mission. We will continue to engage with existing supporters while actively seeking out new funding opportunities and partnerships that align with our goals.

In terms of evidence of our financial sustainability plan's success, we have already made significant progress in generating revenue and securing philanthropic funding. We have received grants and donations from reputable organizations such as the Bayer Foundation, Ray and Tye Noorda Foundation, the World Food Programme, and World Vision International. These partnerships serve as tangible evidence of our ability to attract financial support and sustain our operations.