Washington, D.C.: Two students from Russia won the international short video competition, “My Food, Our Future”, organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to mark the World Food Day on October 16.
Maria Ivanova (14), resident of Rostov-on-Don city in Southern Russia, and Nadya Putyakova (20), resident of the city of St. Petersburg, were the runners up in the annual short video contest, winning the $250 prize each. Ivanova, a student at the school number 20, submitted a two-minute video, titled, “Healthy Food,” offering solutions for accessing healthy foods, winning the second position in the youth category (10-17 years). Putyakova’s video, titled, “Food Will Save the World” that won the second prize of $250 in the youth category (18-25 years), elaborated on her efforts in sustainably reducing and repurposing food waste in her community.
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., IFPRI organized its first annual short video contest, “My Food, Our Future”, to raise awareness and encourage youth to get involved in finding solutions to food security challenges in their neighborhood, community, and country. This year’s theme for the contest encouraged participants to offer ideas and solutions to help ensure the world has access to healthy, diverse, and affordable diets.
“The youth are a powerful resource for economic development and social progress. Young people hold tremendous energy and creativity to not only contribute to agriculture, but also in addressing the major challenges facing humanity – hunger, poverty, and climate change,” said IFPRI Director General, Shenggen Fan. “It is imperative for the current generation to help remove the barriers youth face in order to reach the full potential of our youth and our world. The video contest enables us to listen to and amplify the voices of youth across the globe,” added Fan.
Ivanova’s video shared ways to grow one’s own food; and then combining it with soaked lentils and other ingredients to rustle up a bowl of fresh and healthy salad. “I think that we must take care of our health ourselves. We should support farmers markets and people’s own home gardens — healthy food is the food which we make ourselves,” said Ivanova, a young advocate of kitchen gardens. She dreams of being an artist or photographer in the future and opening her own café, serving delicious healthy foods.
Putyakova, a young activist restauranteur with “Food will Save the World”, in her video, shared the importance of reducing food waste by collaborating with producers and businesses in the city to repurpose food donated by them into delicious muffins, pies and fruit salads. “Fresh food should not be in trash,” said Putyakova. “We use food that is unsold in markets to cook coffee breaks. But the main part of our job is to tell people about food wasting.” In the future, Putyakova would like to work on reforming laws in her country that levy taxes on food passed to charity foundations and food banks.
Other winners include Mexico’s Frida Garza Mendiolea and team that won the top prize of $500 in the youth category (18-25 years); and Nepal’s Grace Tiwari, who bagged the second spot with the $250 prize. In the second category (10-17 years), Australia’s Hannah Yin and Hiya Shah won the top prize of $500; and the runner up includes UAE’s Johan Sanju Sebastian, who won $250 prize. Students from more than 19 countries and across five continents participated in the short video contest. The winning videos will be showcased at IFRPI’s website and social media channels.
To watch all the winning videos, click here.
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The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI was established in 1975 to identify and analyze alternative national and international strategies and policies for meeting the food needs of the developing world, with particular emphasis on low-income countries and on the poorer groups in those countries Visit: www.ifpri.org