April 28, 2020

YALI Alumnus Providing Meals During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Elijah Addo (center) and members of Food for All Africa’s Community Emergency Preparedness and Response team (Courtesy Elijah Addo)

Elijah Addo is a Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Regional Leadership Center alumnus. The leadership centers offer training on entrepreneurship skills, civil society management and public policy that prime youth for success in their communities.

Addo is now trying to ensure that the most vulnerable people in communities have continuous access to meals as COVID-19 disrupts daily life.

Addo is the founder of Food for All Africa, an award-winning food-recovery company that provides food for over 5,000 people across Ghana. He launched the Food4All COVID-19 Community Emergency Intervention program to help those affected by the virus in his country.

In February, Addo’s company mapped out scenarios of the difficulty low-income and vulnerable Ghanaians would have accessing food and basic essentials under the threat of COVID-19. With support from the Global Food Banking network based in Chicago, the Ghana Food Movement and the Food and Beverage Association of Ghana, Addo was able to launch the program on March 22.

“My training experience and support from YALI and United States African Development Foundation gave me foundational support as a leader,” Addo said. “This became the cornerstone on which the impact we have created in the last five years has been built.”

Note: This article was orginially published on ShareAmerica.