The third year of Challenge Lab is behind us. This time, it focused on the area outside the capital, and on Tišnov and the Brno region, where it set itself the task of shortening supply chains and getting local food from producers to consumers, whether to households, schools, or restaurants, in the fastest and most efficient way possible.
What is Challenge Lab?
This year's Challenge Lab set itself the task of bringing together experts, enthusiasts and the general public and offering them the opportunity to participate in solving a local problem in the food industry. The 2023 Challenge, which was based on the program A vibrant region, was under the slogan "From fork to fork" and tried to find a way to get products from local farmers and producers onto the plates of local residents. This year was the third that we, as Impact Hub ČR, have organized under the auspices of EIT Food and other partners organized. In the past, we helped, for example, the company UGO find a way to utilize biowaste or companies Nestlé create carbon neutral food.
The moon has flown away like water
The submitted projects looked at the issue of shortening supply chains from countless angles. Throughout the month-long challenge, they had professional mentors and experts at their disposal to help them develop and fine-tune their ideas into their final form. For example, they met with a Dutch organization Local2Local, from whom they learned how various approaches to cooperation between farmers and sellers, which have been implemented in the Netherlands for years, work in practice. They were then able to discuss logistics with an expert from Bramar, and in order to better understand the Tišnovsko and Podbrněnsko region, the participants also went on an excursion to orchards in Starý Lískovec in Brnoto look under the hood of local fruit production and learn firsthand about the problems and obstacles that growers face on a daily basis. Among the workshops that the participants went through was, for example, Design Thinking, which was provided by Ernst & Young. It gave the participants a good foundation for project thinking. We are very pleased that just as the teams started with great enthusiasm and determination at the beginning of the month, they still presented their great ideas after a month. It was clear that they do not care about the future of the region and that they want to contribute their little bit to the mill.
Simple imimplementation and scalability win
The jury was most impressed by the Fill the Form team's project, which proposes to shorten the path from farmers to consumers through self-service farm shops. Their solution offers easy scalability; sales can start via a self-service machine. This allows you to test real demand, and it can possibly be used in less frequented areas, such as villages or the outskirts of cities. If the machine is not enough to meet demand, it can be replaced by a self-service shop, which makes sense with higher sales, for example in city centers.
"It was inspiring to hear concrete ways in which small farmers and a big city can work together in the mastermind with Dutch Local2Local. I also appreciate the sharing of know-how not only from this project, but also the provision of relevant data and studies from Impact Hub, which helped us put the idea into a real environment without having to do extensive research ourselves in a limited time," says Marketa Lazarova from the winning team.
There was no shortage of great ideas
Other research teams proposed, for example, software that would mediate the best logistics route between the farmer and the customer in cooperation with existing carriers. Another project focused on the issue of winemaking, which, under the name Živé Víno, would help beginning and small winemakers with sales, promotion and logistics. The team called Jezme lokalné a hospodárně came up with a project proposal that would make full use of the Brno Market space, where farmers could sell their harvest and products from it all year round. In the market, they would introduce a gastro operation between the stalls, where food would be cooked, eaten and delivered. Unsold surplus fresh food from the market would be offered to local restaurants and canteens in the vicinity of the Brno Market, which could process it into their dishes. The last of the teams involved worked with the idea that "When people can't go to the farmer, the farmer has to go to them", on the basis of which they invented mobile shops with local farm products. They would go with them to big cities, their outskirts, and even more remote villages - in short, anywhere where there was demand.
The culmination of a month's work
The announcement took place at our Impact Hub in Brno, and the prize was presented by the Statutory Deputy Governor of the South Moravian Region, Lukáš Dubec. Thanks to the support of the South Moravian Region, we were able to launch this wonderful challenge and thus dedicate ourselves to supporting the Tišnov and Podbrněn regions. And thanks to the financial support of our partners Heineken, Sonnentor and the city of Tišnov, the winning team was able to take home valuable prizes and a financial reward of CZK 50. Thank you very much!
Challenge Lab and what's next
The winning team's project is not going to go into a drawer now. In cooperation with Lukáš Dubec, they will look for implementation options (not only) in the South Moravian Region, because the support of local farmers and producers is more than desired. At the same time, they are also waiting for a presentation of the project before the Agrarian Chamber and the Association of Private Agriculture of the Czech Republic, which should take place in September. How far the Fill the From team will reach with the Self-Service Stores project is only in their hands.
