Summary
Overview
Felix Brooks Church shares the story of Sanku, a social enterprise he co-founded to combat hidden hunger—malnutrition affecting 3 billion people who have full stomachs but lack essential nutrients. Through an innovative device called a dosifier that adds vitamins and minerals to flour at local mills, Sanku has scaled to reach 75 million people daily across East Africa. Felix reveals how this solution not only helps millions globally but also transformed his own son Leo's life, who has autism and an extreme eating disorder. With a new ambitious vision to reach 1 billion people across 10 countries in the next decade, the talk demonstrates how simple, mechanical technology combined with systemic change can address massive global health challenges.
The Hidden Hunger Crisis and Food Fortification Solution
Felix introduces the concept of hidden hunger, explaining that 3 billion people suffer from malnutrition despite having full bellies. The problem is that staple foods like flour provide calories but lack essential vitamins and minerals, leading to stunting, delayed brain development, and preventable deaths in children. He presents food fortification—adding nutrients to everyday foods people already eat—as a proven, 100-year-old solution that has virtually eliminated malnutrition in countries where it works properly, but remains broken or non-existent in much of the global south.
- Staple foods like salt, oil, and flour are the foundation of meals worldwide, making them ideal vehicles for nutrition
- Food fortification has been working for about 100 years and has eliminated malnutrition in countries with functioning systems
- Hidden hunger affects 3 billion people who have full bellies but are literally starving from lack of nutrients
- Children suffer most from hidden hunger, experiencing stunting, delayed brain development, and thousands die daily from preventable illness
" Bellies are full, but full bellies are not enough. If you're only eating that, starch, which is often the case, you're literally starving from lack of nutrients. That's why it's called hidden hunger. "
" If you want to get nutrients into people, the most efficient way isn't to change the food that they eat, but instead to improve the daily food that they already rely on. "
Building the Dosifier: From Prototype to Scalable Solution
Felix recounts his journey developing the Sanku dosifier, starting in Kathmandu in 2010 where he spent a year building prototypes through trial and error. When he moved to Tanzania to test the device, he discovered the mills were completely different, forcing him to start over. He spent another year in a dirt floor metal shop visiting hundreds of mills across East Africa, learning from millers and co-designing until he had a machine that could work anywhere. The resulting dosifier is a simple, lightweight device that automatically adds precise amounts of nutrients to flour as grain flows through it.
- The initial prototype built in Kathmandu didn't work in Tanzania's mills, requiring a complete redesign
- Felix spent a year visiting hundreds of mills across East Africa, dragging the machine across borders and co-designing with millers
- By 2015, they commercialized the Sanku Dosifier, which automatically doses precise amounts of nutrients as grain flows through
- The dosifier works by detecting weight loss as grain flows out and triggering a feed screw to add exact amounts of powdered vitamins
" I had to go back to the drawing board. I spent an entire year on this dirt floor metal shop, banging out devices until I had something that could be installed. "
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