Programme targets healthier street food in Indonesia

JAKARTA – Mercy Corps’ food cart social enterprise KeBAL is about to get bigger, better and even healthier, thanks to DSM, the world’s largest producer of vitamins, carotenoids and nutritional lipids. The healthy street food social enterprise aimed at providing nutritious meals to Jakarta’s children in urban poor areas will soon be expanding across more of the city’s neighbourhoods and packing even more nutritional punch.

Together with Rabobank Foundation, DSM is growing KeBAL to transform it into a viable and attractive franchise concept of nutritious meals for children of low-income households in Jakarta. As part of the programme upgrade, KeBAL menus will feature rice porridge, rice meals, nutritious jelly and healthy drinks.

"This collaborative effort on behalf of Mercy Corps and DSM is the perfect marriage of innovation and scalability," said Neal Keny-Guyer, Mercy Corps CEO. 

"We are excited to expand KeBAL's capacity and provide nourishment to more hungry children across Jakarta," added Mr Keny-Guyer. 

Specialised in developing the right micronutrient compositions, DSM will lend its expertise to the long-running Mercy Corps established social enterprise KeBAL in order to expand the scale of the current business and provide affordable and even more nutritious meals to Indonesia’s youngest and often nutritionally-deprived children. In this partnership, DSM will help grow KeBAL to transform it into a viable and attractive franchise concept of nutritious meals. In addition, the business will have scalable potential for replication in other parts of Indonesia and across the world.

“We see KeBAL as a fantastic opportunity to reach young children of low-income households with nutritious meals and snacks. Balanced food providing all vitamins and minerals is crucial for the physical and mental development of children, but unfortunately millions of children worldwide suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. KeBAL’s proposition of ‘street food – children – nutrition’ is unique, and we are proud to be a partner in this endeavour” said Stephan Tanda, member of the DSM Managing Board.

This partnership is part of DSM’s Nutrition Improvement Programme – a marketing unit and incubator to incorporate new nutritional products into business models that are market-driven, financially sustainable and scalable.  KeBAL street food franchise perfectly fits these criteria and has the potential to keep succeeding.Originals