Zach McGovern and Ray Mielke, two young financial analysts from General Mills in Minnesota, embarked on their first volunteer project with PFS this year. Under the guidance of volunteer Steve Berger, a retired General Mills employee and seasoned PFS volunteer, they set out to review and update the financial management systems of Lizhbrand Multicare Ltd, a maize milling company in Kenya. 

Lizhbrand’s operations had expanded since the business opened in 2017 and their financial management system was no longer sufficient for the company’s growing needs.  Understanding the need for a more robust system, Zach and Ray began by reviewing Lizhbrand’s existing financial management processes. They collaborated closely with CEO Lydia Mirugu, to establish a comprehensive financial process flow. This structured approach helped the team identify the various accounting units that required attention and management.  

Zach and Ray meticulously analyzed Lizhbrand’s production processes and associated financial records, breaking down each step to better understand how financial data was generated and recorded. This not only highlighted the inefficiencies in the current system but also helped them identify suitable accounting systems to replace it. The duo evaluated two potential software solutions: Odoo.com and Manager.io. They presented their findings to Lizhbrand, highlighting the capabilities of each system. After careful consideration, Odoo.com emerged as the preferred choice due to its capabilities and potential to scale. 

Zach and Ray went the extra mile by contacting several potential service providers for the company. The Lizhbrand team followed up with the service providers for demonstrations and quotations, eventually narrowing down to two options.  They eventually decided to contract with Odoo Africa as they were more responsive and offered competitive pricing.  

PFS is immensely grateful to Zach, Ray and Steve for willingly offering their expertise, which has enabled Madam Mirugu to make a well-informed decision that will help Lizhbrand continue to build sustainable business growth.

In 2012, three friends - Jane Maigua, Charity Ndegwa and Loise Maina, who had over thirty years of combined experience in entrepreneurship and agribusiness – came together to establish a macadamia nut processing and export company, with the goal of supporting smallholder farmers and developing local communities in Kenya. The trio set up Exotic EPZ Ltd to create a sustainable and inclusive agribusiness value chain, with a special focus on women and youth.  

Like many entrepreneurs across the world, they faced hurdles setting up their business. One of the challenges they faced was finding the right technical and business solutions for their company. 

This is where Partners in Food Solutions (PFS) stepped in, offering the expertise of volunteers from their global corporate partners to food processors in Africa. Since 2019, PFS has supported Exotic EPZ with a range of services such as process layouts and development, finance advisory services and mentorships for their management team.  

They were assisted in their most recent project by General Mills’ retiree Garry Hellmich, who helped them prepare for an international audit.  Exotic EPZ exports its macadamia nuts to several countries, including the United States. To meet U.S. regulations, they needed to undergo a mandatory facility audit by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and reached out to PFS for assistance. 

Garry was initially hesitant when asked to help Exotic EPZ prepare for the FDA audit. “I was a little reluctant to accept because FDA audits had changed a lot since I was a quality manager at General Mills,” he said. So, he reached out to a colleague who updated him on the requirements. After his first meeting with the Exotic team, he realized that while they had good food safety systems, they had no knowledge of the FDA. He came up with a plan to modify their existing programs into a food safety plan.  “From there, it was just helping them understand the format of an FDA audit, how to interact with the auditor, and how to prepare the factory for the audit. The team was great to work with as we prepared for the audit.”  

The audit went well, with only two minor recommendations, and the FDA auditor was impressed with the Exotic EPZ facility overall. CEO Jane Maigua shared, “The audit was a great success, and Exotic stood out as the best company among all those the auditor visited in Kenya. We are incredibly proud of our team, and the support we received from Garry over the period was invaluable.”  

Achievements like these reinforce PFS’ commitment to empower food processors across Africa to achieve excellence in quality and safety and thrive in a competitive, global market. 

Nigeria’s snack market has been flourishing, driven by urbanization and an increasing demand for convenient, nutritious snack options. With an estimated value of $1.5 billion by the end of this year, the industry has opened doors for innovation among local processors. AACE Foods Processing and Distribution Limited, a prominent Nigerian food processing company and client of PFS, saw a clear opportunity to expand into this lucrative market. Known for their high-quality spices, AACE Foods wanted to diversify their portfolio with a locally made extruded snack and reached out to PFS for support. In response, a team of volunteers from General Mills and Bühler was assembled, bringing their extensive food science expertise to the project. 

One of the key contributors was Caleb Heck, associate manager for Cheerios and adult cereal innovation at General Mills who has over 15 years of experience in research and development across multiple food innovation areas such as cereal, protein technology and Pillsbury products. Caleb brought a wealth of knowledge on product innovation and flavor development to this project.  Driven by a passion for community-building, he was excited to extend his skills to a global project through PFS. “I have been involved in local community volunteering, including Habitat for Humanity, and I think that volunteering with PFS is a great opportunity to take this interest in volunteering to a global community.” 

To kick off the collaboration, the volunteer team worked closely with AACE Foods to identify a product concept that would resonate in the Nigerian snack market. The team provided expertise on ingredient sourcing, product formulation, and manufacturing techniques suited to AACE's production capabilities. The project required creativity, especially with ingredient procurement, as the Nigerian market often lacks easy access to certain food ingredients.  

“Working with AACE gave me insight on some of the challenges that African companies can face in procuring ingredients and the adaptability they need to develop new products.  In the US food market, nearly any ingredient is available, but this is not the case in Nigeria; AACE had to be creative in finding the right ingredients that could be easily procured to make the new flavors and then I worked with them to help adapt recipes to these ingredients,” Caleb shared.  

After rounds of research and testing, the AACE team came up with a new, spicy cheese extruded snack called Jaracrunch which is made from corn and bean flour - a unique flavor profile that was largely absent from the Nigerian market.  

After a few safety incidents occurred at Fastizers Food and Confectionary Limited’s facility in Nigeria, PFS Program Manager Toju Ukubeyinje thought it a good opportunity to offer them an occupational health and safety (OHS) refresh.  

“Fastizers produces cookies, biscuits and other confectionaries beloved by the Nigerian populace. After a couple of accidents happened within the span of two weeks, I realized that Fastizers would benefit greatly from the expertise of an OHS professional who could guide them to identify the root causes and gaps and implement preventative measures across the production process,”  said Toju. Based on this, PFS recruited General Mills project and system engineer Javier Valganon on an ‘Ask-an-expert' (AAE) project to improve Fastizers OHS culture.  

As head of health, safety and environment at the General Mills’ San Adrián plant in Spain, Javier Valganon was a perfect fit for this AAE. Javier began volunteering with PFS to share his knowledge and experience with food processors in other parts of the world, he said. “I have always felt the desire to help to the extent of my abilities, especially when it concerns people's safety. In all the projects I have participated in, what I have always received in return has been more than I have been able to deliver, which makes it a truly enriching experience.” 

Javier tackled the project with a two-fold approach. His first focus was on the equipment – which within the parameters of OHS must be designed to be safe and have mechanisms to prevent harm to people. “Our immediate actions were to install the necessary devices on the equipment to avoid accidents during production,” he said. “The most interesting challenges we had to address on this project were those related to the availability of technology associated with costs, but these were satisfactorily resolved with the local team looking for alternatives, once we had established the bases for safe work. “ 

The second approach is instilling a strong safety and health culture in the company by increasing people's perception and awareness of risk. Javier considers this a more medium-to long-term approach, as his years of experience have demonstrated that this kind of cultural change takes place only after sustained, consistent effort over time.  However, the Fastizers team have been encouraged to continue to provide regular OHS training to all employees, tailored for specific job roles and risk levels. They have also been urged to maintain open lines of communication between management and employees regarding safety concerns, policy updates, and incident reporting and the use of visual reminders such as posters and safety boards to keep OHS guidelines top-of-mind. 

Working with Fastizers has given Javier a different perspective on how African processors strive to produce safe food despite the many logistical and financial hindrances they face. “Working with this wonderful team, I have come to the realization that thinking outside the box can lead to imaginative and simple solutions to common problems.” 

Toju could not agree more. “The combination of Javier’s expertise and Fastizers’ agility led us to unlock practical solutions that addressed the OHS challenges in ways we might never have anticipated. This is how PFS facilitates thinking creatively together to find solutions that make a real difference for clients." 

Ivorian cuisine covers a wide range of tubers, grains, fish and vegetables, typically garnished with a range of local spices. In many households, these spices are ground by hand, making their daily use tiring and inconvenient. In 2016, Mrs. Yao Glawdis decided to change the status quo, by establishing SITRAV, a processing company that made affordable, ready-to-use spices. Eight years on, SITRAV has grown to become one of the leading producers of local spices in Côte d’Ivoire. To meet growing demand, SITRAV has had to expand their current production facility to new premises nearby. They looked to PFS for support on how best they could optimize their space while observing good hygiene practices. 

Kevin Richter, an engineering manager at Ardent Mills joined this project to support SITRAV. In his daily job, Kevin helps manage capital projects throughout the company. The range of experience he has garnered has been very useful to PFS as one of our committed and long-standing volunteers. He has nearly twenty successful projects under his belt, since he started volunteering in 2013. “Volunteering is a good way to give back, whether it is in the local community or like in my case, all these places that I may never even travel to. It’s also important to me because the clients (at PFS) always have a thirst for knowledge, curiosity and an improvement mindset which makes it easier to work with them.” 

Together with another volunteer from Bühler, Kevin reviewed SITRAV’s production process and came up with a plant layout design that prioritized food safety and put the requisite documentation in place. “The project was really about upping the food safety culture and trying to set the basic standards for what a United States (U.S) audit would require for walking zones for employees and ensure that dirty products are not mixed with clean products after processing,” said Kevin. 

SITRAV modified their plant’s layout based on the volunteers’ recommendations, setting the fundamentals for the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) certification they are aiming for. Kevin has signed up for another project with SITRAV to help resolve aspiration problems in their spice grinding room. He is working with them to develop a filtration system that will reduce how much spice blows back into the room to eliminate most of the dust.  

Mr. Beni Ngouan, operations director for SITRAV expressed his gratitude to Kevin and his team, saying, “Thanks to the volunteers, we achieved our objective. It was quite tough to have to pull down a portion of the walls and tiles but in the end, we are very happy to see the transformation of our building; the space is well organized and chic!”   

“Volunteering with PFS is always a good experience and I’m always happy to help. Don’t be afraid to start volunteering! The PFS teams are very patient, and the clients face the same problems that we do in the U.S – just on a different scale. Volunteering allows you to step back from the lens of large-scale manufacturing and focus on a small-scale issue which could be of a different raw material (like spices or cocoa beans) than you are used to. This shouldn’t scare you, because whether you know it or not, you have learned a lot from our culture at Ardent Mills, which you can hopefully impart to others,” said Kevin.