School-Link Technologies has been a key supporter of GCNF since 2007. School-Link is an annual sponsor of GCNF’s A Possible Dream Gala and in 2011 increased their support to $10,000, joining the prestigious Builder of Children’s Dreams sponsorship level.
One of four corporations to respond to GCNF’s call for a steady stream of multi-year pledges in 2008, School-Link made a generous pledge of $25,000 over five years. These precious dollars have been allocated to the Global Child Nutrition Forum, now entering into its 14th year, which is designed to assist developing countries to build and expand sustainable school feeding programs. At the annual Forum, government leaders from developing countries convene with school feeding stakeholders from the public and private sector and governmental, private voluntary and nonprofit organizations for technical assistance training, program planning, networking opportunities, and day-long school feeding field trips and School Feeding Toolkit workshops.
School-Link’s CEO, Lawrence “Chip” Goodman has not only been an advocate for school feeding programs, but also for the linkage between school feeding programs and the market they provide for small holder farmers. Goodman recognizes that, “Providing the right incentives to drive agricultural development in developing countries starts with creating new market demand that then expands capacity. There is no better way to increase demand than to serve home grown food to hungry school children.”
Goodman has been committed to the success of the Global Forum since he first attended in 2008. He facilitated the introduction of GCNF to two experts who subsequently made presentations at past Global Forums. CP Das, the President of the Akshaya Patra Foundation presented in 2008 on Akshaya Patra’s success in providing hot meals to nearly 1 million children per day in India. Another 200,000 hot meals have been added since then. Dr. George Abe, Director of the Applied Management Research (AMR) program at the Anderson School of Business, presented in 2010 on a research project undertaken by AMR graduate students. The students analyzed the Akshaya Patra Foundation’s school feeding program to determine how the application of sound business practices could increase the cost-effectiveness of the program and expand its scale.
Currently, GCNF is entering into discussions with AMR, facilitated by Goodman, to engage AMR graduate students alongside counterparts in developing countries in a school feeding program-based research project that will develop and transfer business skills and evaluate the means for continuous improvement in school feeding in the host country.
Speaking of his commitment to supporting GCNF’s work to help developing countries build and expand sustainable school feeding programs, Goodman and his colleagues see an opportunity to transfer proven business methods to improve efficiencies in school-food supply chains. He is working with UCLA to develop a Management Development Institute and regional training, entrepreneurship development, and technology for accountability to better serve children in schools domestically and overseas.
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