Designing food systems that alleviate poverty

Food systems sit at the intersection of some of the world’s most pressing challenges: poverty, climate change, urbanization, and unemployment. They determine whether farmers can earn a dignified living, whether urban families can afford nutritious food, and whether communities are resilient in the face of environmental and economic shocks. Yet in many low-income contexts, food systems are failing those who depend on them most.

What these failures have in common is not a lack of food, technology, or entrepreneurial talent – but a lack of systems designed for the realities of people affected by poverty.

Ahad Katera and Khadija Mohamed-Churchill, two impact entrepreneurs from the elea Entrepreneurs’ Community who live and work in East Africa, illustrate what it takes to change that. Their ventures, Guavay and Kwanza Tukule, operate at different points of the food system yet converge on the same insight: poverty alleviation and commercial success are not opposing goals when solutions are built around affordability, access, and trust.

Watch the video as an introduction to the topic:

For Ahad, the starting point was agriculture in Tanzania. Despite being an agricultural country, yields remain low, even though around 70 percent of families depend on farming for their livelihoods. Early on, he encountered a principle that would shape his path as an entrepreneur: fall in love with the problem, not the solution.

When he looked closely at why productivity was so low, the answer lay beneath the surface. Soils had been depleted over decades, losing the nutrients needed to sustain healthy crops. For smallholder farmers, this translated directly into low yields and incomes, vulnerability to climate shocks, and limited prospects for the next generation.

Ahad Katera, Founder & CEO, Guavay

Ahad committed to soil health as a long-term systems challenge – one that could only be solved if farmers could afford, access, and trust the solutions offered to them.

Khadija’s journey into food systems began far from the fields. After studying and working in banking and consulting in Nairobi and London, she became acutely aware of how complex everyday food preparation was for families back home. Something as simple as cooking beans, a staple food, required time, fuel, and effort that many households could scarcely afford.

When she returned to Kenya, the challenge became clearer: food was available, but access was unreliable – especially in low-income urban neighborhoods where most households depend on informal food vendors. The problem was not production alone, but distribution.

Across Africa, food systems are under growing pressure. Rapid urbanization is reshaping demand, while climate change threatens agricultural productivity. Millions of people move from rural areas to cities each year in search of better economic opportunities. In many rapidly growing cities, however, food systems have not kept pace – leaving low-income households with limited access to affordable and reliable food.

In this context, food systems are inseparable from poverty alleviation. They shape livelihoods in rural areas, determine access in urban ones, and influence whether economic growth translates into shared prosperity. Improving food systems therefore requires a holistic view – one that connects farm productivity with last-mile distribution and consumer access.

Ahad’s company, Guavay, tackles the challenge upstream. By combining scientific research with locally available inputs, it designs organic and mineral-organic fertilizers tailored to specific crops. The objective is twofold: increase yields today while restoring soil health for the future.

Affordability is central. Products are designed to compete with conventional fertilizers, ensuring smallholder farmers can adopt them without taking on excessive risk. Distribution, too, is localized. Through a network of community agents in rural areas, farmers gain consistent access to inputs where they already live and work.

Ahad Katera, Founder & CEO, Guavay

Further downstream, Khadija’s company, Kwanza Tukule, focuses on the last mile of food distribution in cities including Nairobi, Kisumu, and Eldoret. In these urban centers, up to 90 percent of food and household products are distributed through kiosks and informal vendors – yet these actors are often excluded from efficient supply chains.

By aggregating food products from manufacturers, breaking them into right-sized units, and delivering them reliably to vendors, the company improves efficiency and lowers costs across the system. Technology enables route optimization and cost reduction, but it is the team’s reliability that defines value for customers operating on thin margins.

A shared lesson from both ventures is that working in low-income markets requires a fundamentally different approach. Affordability is not synonymous with the lowest price; it is the outcome of solutions that address real constraints and priorities.

For farmers, access depends on price, availability, and perceived return. Yield improvements matter because they translate directly into income and food security. Concepts such as sustainability or climate resilience only resonate when they support these outcomes.

For food vendors, reliability can matter more than price alone. A product delivered consistently at the right time reduces risk of losing income due to lack of supplies and enables planning. Meeting these needs means embedding reliability into day-to-day operations, even when infrastructure is weak and conditions are volatile.

Khadija Mohamed-Churchill, Founder & CEO, Kwanza Tukule

One of the most powerful insights from Ahad’s and Khadija’s experiences is that trust itself becomes a form of innovation. In markets that have long been underserved, inconsistent service delivery has eroded confidence. Customers ask a simple question: will you still be here tomorrow?

Building trust requires consistency – delivering the same quality product in January as in December, showing up despite logistical or environmental challenges, and honoring commitments over time. This often means slower growth and higher operational discipline.

Yet once established, trust becomes a decisive competitive advantage. It strengthens customer loyalty, reduces transaction costs, and enables scale in markets often dismissed as too complex or risky.

Ahad Katera, Founder & CEO, Guavay

Operating in low-income markets is demanding. Margins are tight, supply chains are fragile and returns take time to materialize. Yet the opportunity lies in scale. These markets are large not because of individual purchasing power, but because of aggregated volume.

Demonstrating that businesses can grow profitably under these conditions matters beyond individual ventures. It signals to investors that such markets are viable, unlocking capital for further innovation and expansion. Commercial viability, in this sense, becomes a prerequisite for lasting impact.

Khadija Mohamed-Churchill, Founder & CEO, Kwanza Tukule

Three challenges recur across both ventures and need to be addressed systemically:

1. Talent: Competing with established companies for experienced leaders is difficult, especially in early stages. Purpose, culture, and long-term vision become essential tools for attracting and retaining teams.
2. Supply chains: Weak infrastructure, climate shocks, and political uncertainty add complexity, yet customers depend on reliability regardless of these constraints.
3. Time: Building trust, markets, and resilient systems does not happen quickly. It requires patient capital and partnerships that allow entrepreneurs to iterate, learn, and grow sustainably.

Designing food systems that work for communities affected by poverty requires more than innovation; it requires patience, long-term thinking, and a willingness to build where others see only risk. Entrepreneurs restoring soil health or fixing last-mile distribution are not pursuing quick wins; they are building systems that align productivity, access, and livelihoods over time.

This is where patient capital and committed partnerships matter. Building trust, reliable supply chains, and viable business models in underserved markets takes time and resilience. Yet it is precisely this long-term approach that enables businesses to grow sustainably while delivering meaningful impact for farming families, food vendors, and low-income consumers.

At elea, we see food systems as a powerful lever for poverty alleviation because they connect economic opportunity with basic human needs. When businesses are designed around real-life constraints they demonstrate that impact and profitability are not competing objectives, but mutually reinforcing outcomes.

Food systems built this way do more than deliver food. They create the conditions for inclusive growth – today and for generations to come.