"Social businesses can definitely compete with normal businesses. We have seen that with Tom's shoes where they have been able to compete on a global scale as a social business."
Our guide for today on the journey of communal actualization is Maryam Al Eisa an entrepreneur and the founder of the innovative nonprofit company re food.
I want to set the stage for this interview by shining the spotlight on three main points of focus for our dialogue:
1. About Maryam and her unique human journey
2. The differences between for-profit and nonprofit companies
3. Provide you the listener with useful tools to aggressively tackle the food waste problem.
References mentioned in this episode:
Fast-Moving -Consumer-Goods (FMCG)
RFD by refood
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Social Enterprise vs Philanthropy
Toms Shoes
Copia (Food waste Company)
Reach out to Maryam at:
Instagram @refoodkw
Linkedin
Reach out to broadband at:
Instagram @broadband.podcast
Email aziz@seedsmedia.org
Other Links
Reach out to luucid at:
Instagram @luucidkw
Website luucidkw.com
For guest recommendations Email hello@luucid.co
"Social businesses can definitely compete with normal businesses. We have seen that with Tom's shoes where they have been able to compete on a global scale as a social business."
Our guide for today on the journey of communal actualization is Maryam Al Eisa an entrepreneur and the founder of the innovative nonprofit company re food.
I want to set the stage for this interview by shining the spotlight on three main points of focus for our dialogue:
1. About Maryam and her unique human journey
2. The differences between for-profit and nonprofit companies
3. Provide you the listener with useful tools to aggressively tackle the food waste problem.
References mentioned in this episode:
Fast-Moving -Consumer-Goods (FMCG)
RFD by refood
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Social Enterprise vs Philanthropy
Toms Shoes
Copia (Food waste Company)
Reach out to Maryam at:
Instagram @refoodkw
Linkedin
Reach out to broadband at:
Instagram @broadband.podcast
Email aziz@seedsmedia.org
Other Links
Reach out to luucid at:
Instagram @luucidkw
Website luucidkw.com
For guest recommendations Email hello@luucid.co
broadband with Maryam Al Eisa
Innovation with Maryam Rev B
Aziz: Hello, and welcome to broadband here at broadband, we live by the philosophy that one needs other human beings to teach them how to be human. Our guide for today on this journey of communal actualization is Mariam Alessa and entrepreneur, and the founder of the innovative nonprofit organization re food re food is an environmental solution.
Tackling the massive food waste epidemic in Kuwait with an added humanitarian value who doesn't like a win-win. I want to set the stage for this interview by shining the spotlight on three main points of focus for our dialogue, the first being Maryam and her unique human journey and the Genesis of reef food.
Next, I want to feed my curiosities and hopefully yours on the differences between a four and non-profit organization, what the pain points are and how they track their wins. And finally, on provides you the listener with useful tools to aggressively tackle the food waste problem. I'll ask my team to share some best practices to exercise mindfulness, and to reduce your carbon footprint
Refood Idea [00:00:55] so when I was doing my research on you, you took the initiative nonetheless of tackling the massive food waste phenomenon, Kuwait by founding re food. So can you detail the journey of re food? What concept are you selling and how did you come up with that concept?
Maryam: So refood is a project that I started right after completing my MBA and coming back to Kuwait. It's a project that I wanted to start to as a communal thing. It's a project that I really believed in and it's something that I wanted to start to give me a chance to express the change that I wanted to create. So there is that like personal fulfillment kind of aspect to it.
So. When I first started doing food, I wanted to do something regarding the environment. I wanted to do something to create some sort of awareness regarding climate change to create that perspective.
Um, we're also like out of touch with the system that we are a part of. So, when we waste food at home, we don't really realize the impact that this wasted food has like our concept of it is kind of purely religious. That is, this is like food and we shouldn't waste it because God doesn't like us wasting food
so, I w I kind of wanted to link that back in. Where does the food waste go in the food? What, when we waste food, it goes to this landfill and this landfill is actually polluting the environments like extremely destructive ways.
So kind of wanted to create that loop, that circled, that this food is actually going to be the food in our stomach. It's going to be our health. It's going to be the air that we breathe. It's all very connected and we can't really disconnect from it.
Refood Business Model [00:02:26] Aziz: Awesome. And so what is the business model of re food? How are you tackling this issue?
Maryam: we food today offers companies, all co all F&B all FMCG companies, solution to their last part of the supply chain, which is managing the excess food and the near expiry foods. So we offer that to companies. So companies are glad to provide us with their new expires in their excess. They would much rather it be given to people that will not cannibalize their sales, but also they want the PR side of it.
They want to be responsible for that. They want to show that they're being responsible for their wasted foods. And that's something beautiful from my opinion, that these companies are motivated to do something, even though they really don't have to, they could be easily just like selling it in. A lot of companies are just selling the food. To whoever takes that, but giving it to giving it out to the food and making sure that it never goes to waste. That to me is like a very beautiful concept.
Pain Points of Refood [00:03:22]Aziz: Okay. So. What are some of the pain points? I mean, I can easily tell you that your initiative and your company is very unique and quite, I've never seen a company similar to it. So, I'm assuming maybe the government isn't familiar with how the protocol is with dealing with a company. Like you're always in how to even initiate it. So did you have any pain points?
Maryam: Of course every like every, every project has a lot of pain points in the starting and we still have a lot of pain points today. The things that I would see a lot of like room for improvement is in terms of a lot of legislation, I would say in terms of regulating non-profits companies in terms of incentivizing people to start social businesses and to start these nonprofit companies.
Like, for example, when we first started we hit a stop. We had to stop because we couldn't find the space to operate from rent is too expensive. And we were doing it purely as a volunteer project at that time it was just like literally a nonprofit company on paper. And it was a volunteer run operation real life.
So not having that space. Could have easily stopped us and we stopped for that for awhile. However, like fighting to get some space. It was like, there were no resources invested in it, but it took a lot of grit and perseverance to find the right channel, to provide us with a location to operate from.
And thankfully, unfortunately we still operate from that place today. Even though this is like something that strictly is unregulated within the governmental scope. So there should be some sort of regulation, some sort of facilitation to encourage companies to start such projects. And especially this is a project of national interest.
We're reducing food waste. We're trying to create something sustainable within the environment. And within that industry, we have an economic, humanitarian, environmental, and a huge social impact. So. I would say that the governments in Kuwait, investing in such projects are providing at least land and resources for such projects is not a bad idea at all.
Struggles with Warehousing [00:05:11]Aziz: Definitely. I completely agree with you. I mean, I think there should be real estate available. I mean, in terms of warehouse and we have so much space already in Kuwait, I'm very surprised that you had to struggle to get that.
Maryam: we still do. We still do there's a struggle is like going on it's and I see a lot of projects and a lot of other nonprofits are also struggling with that securing lands, especially like in Kuwait, the government's gives a lot of provisions to different companies, but when it comes to the environmental or non-profits, or those with a social return, or like a triple bottom line, we have to compete with the rest of Kuwait.
So um, It's very difficult to reach that level when you don't have as much resources as they do, because people are not interested really just investing in nonprofits and people see it more of like a voluntary role rather than a professional role.
Aziz: So, I mean, you said something very interesting. You said that you are now being compared not only to other non-profits, but to all other companies in Kuwait and, you know, businesses usually measure success by tracking and maximizing profitability and revenue. How to track your growth [00:06:16] How does a social enterprise like re food track its growth?
Maryam: Um, We have our own KPIs, as well as food specifically, we measure the number of packages that we provide, the number of beneficiaries that we have registered with us and the number of volunteers and the number of companies supporting us. So we have these measures to actually measure our year to year growth.
And thankfully it's growing, despite the lack of resources to actually expand it is growing and it is expanding in a very humble way,
Aziz: and I mean, you say low in resources but you know, a person like me who likes to spin things around will say, you know, you have a very lean company, RFD innovative product [00:06:51] Uh, One of the innovative things that you've done is you have a product called the raft, right? So RFD, can you please explain the concept of ref to the audience?
Maryam: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So rough is that concept that I created to actually back up real food rather than an Arabic means supports. So I wanted that to be a support pillar to re food. So the concept of it is a one for one concept. So raft started out as a food subscription box. So basically customers can actually buy this food subscription box regular customers. And for each box sold, we would provide a food package to,
So we create these revenue streams because we can't or technically we're not allowed to collect donations immediately. So we sell that these kind of like subscription services to help these families on a more sustainable .
Aziz: And so there's a, there's that environmental aspect of this food. Isn't going to the waste facilities, but now there's a humanitarian aspect is, you know, you're also giving a box to a family in need. And it's really cool. Cause it sounds like you're, you're pivoting really quickly to find and generate all these revenue streams.
How to manage volunteers [00:07:58] So you mentioned volunteers and innovation is not limited to products. It also applies to processes. Right? So I was watching one of your interviews. And you mentioned that you had 1800 volunteers in 2019 alone. I mean, you're a very lean organization with limited resources, right? So how did you ensure that both the volunteer and the supplier onboarding process was working for you?
Maryam: It's all about processes. So we have volunteers that want to take more responsibilities. So we did create um, we created a volunteering system and that's how I built three food, actually, it's through different tiers of volunteering. So if you want it to be a regular volunteer book, whenever you can, yet, you're absolutely welcome to do that. And you're welcome any time.
If you want it to hold more responsibility and you want it to be trained, I would, we would invest in these volunteers and we would train them and have them hold certain responsibilities. So it had like four levels of volunteers and the third level was a managing level.
So once you're a managing volunteer, you actually come to our team meetings and you become a part of the voice of change, attri food. And that was a very beautiful thing that helped establish free food. So all these people that were part of the managing team, they may drink food and essential part of their lives.
So that creates a culture of volunteering with them food. That was very beautiful.
How to recruit volunteers [00:09:21] Aziz: right. right. I mean, general charities and nonprofits don't really make it fun to give back. And I mean, it feels good obviously to give back, but it also kind of feels like a chore at times. I mean, have you found the secret sauce? I mean, are these volunteers coming and saying, Hey, it's fun to work with free food.
Maryam: I think so. I think so. We've had volunteers with us for like consistent five years. So it has become part of their culture, part of their lifestyle to come through re food and to volunteer.
And we see a lot of people now volunteering in Kuwait, they're really investing in creating a volunteer culture. That's what the government is really investing in. And I do see it prospering. I do see that people do really care about volunteering. Even if it's just a phase of their life to experience that giving back kind of thing. It's, it's It's not it's something it's a need that's unfulfilled by other kinds of activities that you have.
So it's different than going to work is different than like being with your family is different than donating. It's being there to help with your time in your room, energy as a human being, giving back to your community and bonding with other people who share these values. .
Aziz: That's. I mean, that's a huge success story that the fact that now you're a company that stands on its own and pivots on a dime, but also started on the volunteering culture that you instilled in everyone. So well done. that's definitely a one huge successful leap. So amazing.
Uh, You know, I work for an oil and gas company and we have several social impact committees and initiatives.
Is every company a social business? [00:10:50] And I would say that normal for big companies to have that. Does that make every corporation with a social impact committee, a social enterprise?
Maryam: Well, a social enterprise is a business that's committed to creating a change. That's a social change. So they're just not just committed to the profit bottom line. They're committed to the social bottom line as well.
So that doesn't really make them a social enterprise since their main goal is. Oh, well create generating wealth and growing the company. However, it does make them more socially responsible company. So when they have that corporate social responsibility, even though a lot of companies have just shifted their PR teams to CSR teams call it a day
Aziz: all right, so, but what is a nonprofit organization? Exactly. I mean, to me, the concept of an organization existing without any profit doesn't make any sense. Do I have the, definition wrong just by the nature of the name
Maryam: Well, it's a non nonprofit company and we're not a nonprofit organization. I think that would be classified as a non-governmental organization, but a nonprofit company. We're a company that runs as a company and we do generate revenue. We do generates profits. However, all the profits are reinvested in the company to create and to grow and to improve the resources and the operations that has happened.
So It exists to serve a certain goal. It doesn't mean that it doesn't create a wealth within that process. However, wealth is not the main goal. The main goal is to have whatever it is that is set as the main goal. So in terms of re food, the goal is to reduce food waste and tap into a great social impact, environmental, economic, and humanitarian impacts. So that's the goal.
Generating wealth is a way to do it within a capitalistic system because there is no other way to do it to within a capitalistic system except running it as a company. so that's just, I guess,
Aziz: so you're not you're yeah. You're not a charity and you're not a for-profit organization or a nonprofit right in the middle. So you. Probably experienced the best of both worlds when it comes to that.
So like ?
Can a nonproft compete with a for profit [00:12:48]Can a nonprofit, every compete with a for-profit organization or company, I should say, in terms of influence market share economic impact and just overall gravitas.
Maryam: I don't know if any non-profit company exceeds the values of a for-profit companies. However, I can tell you that I know a lot of nonprofit companies that have switched to for profit companies and huge one that works and the food waste sector is Copia, which is a startup that started in Boston, Massachusetts.
And they have shifted to completely like for profits. And I think just to attract just to attract investors, unfortunately they did, or they were forced to do that. It doesn't mean that the company is not interested in having a triple bottom line. So it doesn't mean that they don't have a social impact.
They do. And they're still have that, but it's not just about the profit. It goes beyond the profit. They're a social business. So I do think that social businesses definitely can compete. And we have seen that. We have seen that in like Tom's shoes and a lot of other businesses that have been able to compete on an international level as a social business.
So I do think there's a lot of hope for social businesses.
Aziz: I mean, so with Copia, you have kind of an example where if you can't beat them, join them, but then you mentioned Toms and that's huge. I mean, so just because you're a nonprofit doesn't mean you don't
Maryam: Well Tom's is not a nonprofit, but it is a social business. So you don't necessarily have to start a nonprofit, like maybe starting a nonprofit is not the way to go. Just start a social business, a business that you can operate that has a great social impact and great social value and completely like .
Difficulties in recruiting bright individuals [00:14:23]Aziz: Fair enough. I love that. Have you seen that it was difficult to attract like bright minds and competitive people to work for your company?
Maryam: Um, the strategy that I had for recruitment three food. And it was through a lot of like trial and error is invest in your people. So when I see like a rising star of a volunteer um, I actually make a lot of efforts to make sure that person stays actually food.
And once they graduate from college or whatever they're doing, they actually hold a position at tree food, whether they're just an intern at the beginning. And then they develop into becoming an employee. And we've had a lot of students that have turned into employees.
And these are the most sustainable sustainable employees that we have. It's very different than hiring someone writes out of like recruitment websites. They're here because. They're intrinsically motivated to be here. They came here as volunteers. They want to do this because they believe in doing this providing them this job as a way of living is just accentuating, their life and their interest in this project.
Aziz: You grow them in-house and they already drank the Kool-Aid. So they're sold.
so here's an interesting dynamic. Uh, so If you work for Goldman Sachs and you're the CEO of Goldman Sachs, and you have a really good year you're going to get a bonus worth millions of dollars. And you're the CEO of a nonprofit and you have a good year. And if you give yourself a bonus of a million dollars you'll probably get ostracized and people will think you're greedy, et cetera, et cetera.
Stigma of a high paying salary [00:15:52] Is that another stigma that you're always have to fight that you have to kind of be sure that, Oh, I'm doing something socially that I have to kind of limit my financials.
Maryam: That's unfortunately. Yes. And that's something that I personally struggled with a lot. especially because the project started as a volunteer run operation. It was completely over exhausting my schedule and my timeline, but I struggled to put myself on the payroll and I only did it last year or the year before, I think by the end of 2019.
Just because when it comes to resources at a nonprofit, we're almost always short on resources. So you like, I don't want to be a burden on the company, even though I need to live as well. So having that, like even me personally, like overcoming that is a journey for my development as well on a personal and professional level.
So we don't really get motivated by these bonuses. I do pay myself a salary to live decent life. Definitely below market value though.
Aziz: You know, I definitely understand that concept of, you know, you kind of, even if there's not an actual salary cap, you kind of have to put a salary cap on yourself to feed your baby. Right. And I mean, you have to make sure that your baby grows and thrives
but, Biggest Takeaways [00:17:02] with every business venture whether it be brimming with success or riddled with failure comes lessons learned what's the biggest takeaway or lessons learned from re foods early days.
Maryam: So there are a lot of lessons to be learned. And the lessons that I have right. Always work on financial sustainability. That's not something that should be taken lightly. Even if you're just a volunteer run, operation, financial sustainability is absolutely key. People they love to give, but if you don't make it a part of their lifestyle, they will only do it like once every blue moon. So that doesn't really materialize into much.
Another lesson that I have I feel like we Hear about this thing called, like work-life balance. And, we aspire to have that work-life balance.
When you're in a business or when you're running a business you should be okay with not having a balance for awhile and learn how to manage that because sometimes work does take over your life. Sometimes you do have to do like 10, 14 hour workdays, and it's all right. As long as it's only for like a while, or when you see like, the long-term impact of it.
Um, It's not something that should be normalized in your life, but stops trying to seek balance. And every day, yes, you're trying to be balanced, overall, fulfilling all your needs, your human needs and your work needs. But I feel like this work-life balance kind of is a myth because you can't have it all the time. Importance of a support group [00:18:25]
Aziz: Yeah. I mean, the start of any new chapter in your life is always kind of a transition. And during that transition, it's okay to not have balance. I think it's also really important to have a community around you, right? Like whether it be your network, whether it be your support group family and friends how important is your support group to your sanity uh, of having
Maryam: I think the support group is like the single most important element in my life, honestly. Well, at one point I realized that it's not just about having friends. It's about having people who are going through similar experiences and who can share your pain and your gains as well. Because if your support group are people, for example, for me, if it's people who work in corporate, .
I can't relate to their work and they can't relate to my field. So it's a huge disconnect. But when you have people in your group that are going through similar struggles and regularly go through these struggles and you help each other out, because
I don't know if this is just me or if it's a human thing, but. I don't like to think about my problems. I like to think about other people's problems and help them fix their problems. maybe in a way of trying to avoid my own storm of thinking. And it's easier to analyze like what other people are doing it's because the humans are so curious. I do realize that's very important, like seeing their pains and kind of empathizing
The shda3wa culture [00:19:48]Aziz: Let's work on a dumpster proving, right? I mean, we wanna, we want to salvage these foods, right? So what best practices can our listeners take to ensure they're not wasting food?
Maryam: We have this huge culture. I call it the Shda3wa culture. Like shda3wa normalizes everything. The point of shda3wa is to normalize everything and to be okay with everything and to kind of be desensitized to everything.
So the shda3wa culture really really impacts. Our day to day behaviors. Um, When I don't want to, like, for example, use plastic bottle and somebody offers me a plastic bottle and they're like, yeah, it's all about, that culture. You're dismissing people's beliefs and values.
And not only are you not taking them seriously, but you're also displaying a lack of awareness when you do that. So I really want us to be mindful of our, shda3was even when we purchase something. And when we consume being a mindful consumer means that when you buy something, you realize that you're going to use out of that product. And what's going to go to a landfill out of that product.
And how that is going to affect the environments and you, and the air quality that we all are breathing. So I feel like just having that awareness honestly is key.
Aziz: And, you know, I've been guilty of contributing to the throwaway culture too. Maybe as you mentioned, the style of culture, which should I was translates to. It's not a big deal. Like use the plastic utensils. Ah, it's not a big deal, right. Or you buy a two for one, you throw away one, it's not a big deal.
You know what I mean? Like. there's 7 billion people in the world. If every single one of us had that mentality would be really screwed.
Um, so, Message to the audience [00:21:28]what's an important message that you want our audience to take away from our discussion.
Maryam: Consumption behaviors. I think that's the thing that we need to be most mindful about. We tend to be desensitized just because of the way that we live in the capitalistic society. We buy things and we don't really think about like all of these disposable items that we purchase. We don't really think about what their impact and how they get to affect us and the future generations and the world
Don't be fooled by companies who just say that they're like that we, they call it greenwash and grades. These companies, they come in and they do their great CSR programs and they make you think that this is a sustainable product. It's not as just the same old products with just better packaging and like greener packaging, just to appeal to you just because that's what the consumer wants today is a greener product.
Like realize what you're actually throwing away. So what you're actually consuming and what you're actually throwing away at the end of the day, how much does your trash amounts to, and where that trash is going?
these values and stick to them
Aziz: Beautiful. I mean, but you live the proof with your company. I mean, the people you hire have all been volunteers, so bottom up is the way to go.
How to support refood [00:22:42]Uh, So How can we support you and re food? How can we get out there and support the initiative and make sure it grows
Maryam: Um, You can follow us on social media. You can volunteer with us. We have volunteering opportunities all the time seats opening up daily. We have our raft program, so you can financially goes out to help the families that we're working with. And, just don't waste food.
Aziz: right on. I love that.
Thank you so much for doing that. Thank you for joining us here on the show. And
Maryam: Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoy this.