New Initiative Aims to Improve Transparency and Inclusivity in the Food System – Food Tank

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Journey Foods, an Austin-based food technology company, is starting a new collaboration with colleges and universities to assist students in food technology research. The JourneyLabs initiative aims to diversify people who work in food technology and create more data related to food and nutrition.

Journey Foods was founded in 2018 by Riana Lynn with the aim of addressing supply chain management inefficiencies to better feed the growing population. Lynn explains that data can help companies manage their supply chain, improve transparency in the food system, and improve access to nutritious food.

“We deliver critical actionable data that will help companies improve their food science and supply chain capabilities, with an emphasis on data that supports nutrition, sustainability and cost goals,” Lynn told Food Tank.

Lynn believes university food and nutrition research can help advance the work of Journey Foods. To support this research, Journey Foods announced the launch of JourneyLabs, a scholarship program that awards publicly funded scholarships to college-aged students at partner universities in North America and Hong Kong.

“Journey Foods has built really good relationships with universities over the years, be it with students interested in food science, data science, or economics. Your work has really helped our growth and research, ”Lynn told Food Tank.

The JourneyLabs initiative acts as an incubator in which each participating company and school has a unique agreement to develop specific products and data. That’s why Journey Foods has selected schools with strong programs in data science, nutrition and sustainability. “Our goal was to find the universities that we believe should really be involved in shaping the future of food,” Lynn told Food Tank.

She believes the collaboration can achieve two goals: It will create more food science, food technology, and nutrition data that universities can buy to support their own research. It will also support student researchers by providing them with the data from Journey Foods. In the JourneyLabs program, selected companies and founders also receive free access to Journey Foods data in the initial phase to support their own research and development in areas such as alternative protein and manufacturing.

Lynn also hopes the initiative will help diversify the players working on food systems solutions. JourneyLabs works with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), including Howard University and Tuskegee University. Lynn aims to provide students in historically underfunded HBCUs with the opportunity to work directly with Journey Foods to help create a more efficient and sustainable global food system.

“What I’m most excited about is using funds to specifically pay students at HBCUs to have part of building a future of food supply,” Lynn told Food Tank. She explains that black, indigenous and colored (BIPOC) communities are underrepresented in food technology companies and research settings. “We need to make sure we create safe and inclusive environments for black and brown talent to work on projects that will solve the future of nutrition,” she says.

“College students are really smart and creative,” says Lynn of Food Tank. “With these students, we can accelerate our research, influence, and insights that are more effective for the companies that pay for our services.”

Photo courtesy of Christina Wocintechchat, Unsplash

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