图片：这是2007年在瑞士达沃斯举行的阳光明媚的一月阳光明媚的日子。Mills to help the world’s hungry.

Powell’s answer, ultimately, was to harness what we knew about food and connect with Africa’s small and growing food companies across Africa.

Our food knowledge is deep and wide, and includes solving technical problems, ensuring food safety and developing products.

鲍威尔（Powell食品解决方案的合作伙伴(PFS).

如今，该组织将专家与非洲几个国家的食品领域联系起来，撒哈拉以南非洲人中四分之一的人缺乏足够的食物来过健康，活跃的生活。

The PFS model is simple, but the impact is immense.

Expert volunteers from leading food companies like General Mills share their knowledge with promising African food processors to overcome challenges.

“Partners in Food Solutions was born from the clear-eyed passion of General Mills leaders and employees who believed that the company had a responsibility to help improve food security and nutrition throughout Africa,” says Jeff Dykstra, who worked with Powell as a co-founder of Partners in Food Solutions, and now CEO. “This work that has allowed us to engage and improve hundreds of food companies to benefit millions of consumers and farmers would have never happened without the vision and commitment of General Mills.”

In 2008, PFS was a employee volunteer program within General Mills. Today, it’s an independent nonprofit consortium of volunteers and retirees from six companies: General Mills, Cargill, DSM (Dutch), Bühler (Swiss), Hershey and Ardent Mills, who fund and provide experts to PFS.

“Working with PFS is such a win-win for us,” says Mary Jane Melendez, executive director of the通用磨坊Foundation和PFS董事会成员。“我们的志愿者提供了世界一流的专业知识来加强公司 - 从设施设计到产品开发，再到提供非洲食品公司需要发展的技术和企业知识。他们获得了宝贵的经验，并以积极的方式真正影响非洲的人们，从而帮助我们提高了提高粮食安全的基础优先事项。”

Melendez added that 631 General Mills employees have volunteered for PFS, contributing $5.8 million dollars’ worth of pro-bono consulting to the African businesses that we have served since 2008.

There are 384 active General Mills employee volunteers and 33 active retiree volunteers.

General Mills的研究与开发工程师麦迪逊·巴雷（Madison Barre）曾在马拉维，埃塞俄比亚和肯尼亚的小型食品公司中自愿参加了她的明尼阿波利斯地点。

Barre说：“我一直为PFS所做的无偿工作不仅为我的非洲客户和看到他们的进步，而且还为我自己的技能发展和对项目管理的信心提供了令人难以置信的回报。”

PFS volunteering occurs via email, Skype and video conferencing to keep costs low and allow for more people to volunteer. And though most volunteering is done remotely, Barre did travel to a Malawi production plant where she provided food safety and audit guidance.

了解有关Barre与食品解决方案合作伙伴的经验的更多信息in this Wall Street Journal article并在this post she wrote for “A Taste of General Mills.”

另一位通用磨坊志愿者，技术经理Barmack Rassi帮助西非的一个处理器解决了他们已经挣扎了20年的问题。他在this video.

You can learn more about Partners in Food Solutions, from interviews with Jeff Dykstra and Madison Barre, in我们播客的最新一集.

Orwatch this video overview of the organization.

其他程序有所作为

PFS is far from the only success we’ve had in the area of food security.

考虑想要利用自己的技能和知识来帮助发展中国家的农民的通用工厂工程师和研究人员。

从这种激情出现Compatible Technology International(CTI), which since 1981, has worked with communities in more than 50 countries to design and develop post-harvest farm tools and business training for drying and storing crops, threshing and winnowing grain, and milling flour and nut paste.

还有一个故事始于1993年，当时一般磨坊的一支团队与嘉吉食品科学家一起开发了一种称为Mannapack Rice的维生素和矿物强化的米饭，目标是帮助营养不良的儿童大约五岁。

您可能已经听说过这项工作的组织：Feed My Starving Children.

It’s a non-profit that provides nutritious meals specifically designed to include protein, carbohydrates and key nutrients a starving child needs to thrive. Since 1994, millions of volunteers have packed and sent more than 1.3 billion MannaPack meals to hungry kids around the world.

我们迫不及待地想看看一般磨坊志愿者接下来要做什么。