Disrupting Hunger: How Innovation is Transforming Food Security
MEETING FOR THE WEEK OF June 16, 2025
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Disrupting Hunger: How Innovation is Transforming Food Security
Speaker: Bernhard Kowatsch
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WEEKLY FUNNY WITH SHAGS
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Steven "Shags" Shagrin!
Extra Credit
Two years after my heart attack, I was teaching my college course when I felt discomfort in my chest. I paused the class to pop my medication and felt better quickly.
“Now, if I ever do have a heart attack,” I told my students, “I will give extra credit to whoever gives me CPR.”
One of them shouted out, ”How much?”
What makes someone successful?
Grit? Attitude? Challenges? In this PBS News Hour piece about Lawrence Chu's of the famous Chef Chu's restaurant in Los Altos, California, you might decide that it's a series of memories. What memories have you had that have been difficult, but that become part of the story of a success?
LEARN SOMETHING NEW
Why is Rice so Popular?
Dig into how rice became a staple in the world’s diet, and the surprising consequences of its traditional production practices.
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PROGRAM: Disrupting Hunger: How Innovation is Transforming Food Security
SPEAKER: Bernhard Kowatsch
We bring you a new program every week on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education and how they contribute to service to others.
Today, 343 million people are facing acute hunger—more than double the number from just a few years ago. This dramatic rise is driven by a combination of conflict, increasingly frequent and severe natural disasters, and a global cost-of-living crisis. In the face of these growing humanitarian challenges, the World Food Program is turning to innovation to maximize its impact and reach those most in need.
Through the WFP Innovation Accelerator, WFP identifies, supports, and scales high-impact solutions that have the potential to disrupt hunger and accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. In this talk, Bernhard Kowatsch will explore how innovation can play a transformative role in tackling global hunger and building a more food-secure future.
Our speaker, Bernhard Kowatsch, is the Head of the United Nations (UN) World Food Program (WFP) Innovation Accelerator, which he created in 2015. The Accelerator sources, nurtures, and scales start-ups and nonprofits working to achieve Zero Hunger, and has run 22 accelerator programmes for external partners, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Humanitarian Grand Challenge, Adaptation Fund and other UN Agencies, with more planned.
Prior to starting the Accelerator, Bernhard co-founded the award-winning ShareTheMeal app that crowdsources funding for WFP and has delivered over 264 million meals for hungry children worldwide. His previous experience includes creating WFP’s Business Innovation Unit and working as a Project Leader at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Members and guests, please welcome Bernhard Kowatsch!
To learn more, go to:
https://innovation.wfp.org/
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http://rotary.cool
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Inspiring Solutions
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Development Success Stories
Our third podcast features success stories about economic development from around the world. It is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, or you can click below.
UPCOMING PROGRAM RECORDING SCHEDULE
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always http://zoom.siliconvalleyrotary.com/. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).
If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
THE ATTENDANCE SURVEY
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