Project Nicaragua Bakery Venture
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Date
2019-04
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ohio State University. Office of Outreach and Engagement
Abstract
Project Nicaragua at Ohio State is a nonprofit, student-run organization which seeks to promote quality of living in the rural community of Rancho Grande in Matagalpa, Nicaragua in partnership with the missionary organization Amor en Accion. A variety of public health, education, and entrepreneurship initiatives are explored, such as a clean cook-stove project to improve safety in homes, classroom-based educational sessions, a locally-run sewing center to act as an income supplement for families, and a bakery startup to provide business management experience and employment opportunities for the families in the program. We believe the most effective way to make lasting change is through education and guidance rather than through mere donation, and we hope to inspire others to identify and take advantage of opportunities in their community more effectively by providing firsthand evidence of the benefits of starting a business rather than through trips to the area.
Description
Project Nicaragua at Ohio State is a nonprofit, student-run organization which seeks to promote quality of living in the rural community of Rancho Grande in Matagalpa, Nicaragua in partnership with the missionary organization Amor en Accion. To achieve this goal, a variety of public health, education, and entrepreneurship initiatives are explored. Among these are a clean cook-stove project to improve safety in homes, classroom-based educational sessions, a locally-run sewing center to act as an income supplement for families, and a bakery startup to provide business management experience and employment opportunities for the families in the program. The focus of this presentation will be the bakery project. This project has several goals, including demonstrating the feasibility of starting a business, transferring ownership of the business from our organization to the local community members, teaching financial management through hands-on applications, and creating a source of employment to provide a means of income for the individuals involved. We believe the most effective way to make lasting change is through education and guidance rather than through mere donation, and to that end we hope that by providing first-hand evidence of the benefits of starting a business, we can inspire other individuals to identify and take advantage of opportunities in their community more effectively than we can through our biannual trips to the area. For some time, we have been seeking to invest in a larger facility for the bakery as we currently only have space for two tables, severely limiting the number of customers who can be served at a single time. Another possibility we have considered is using funding to acquire a space closer to the center of town, as our current location receives relatively little foot-traffic, which also negatively impacts our ability to do business. As of now, almost all of our sales are reliant on sales made from a hand-pushed cart, which we have learned has a negative stigma in the area, making it difficult to convince workers to regularly take the cart to the street. We hope to be able to empower this venture to operate without our intervention to foster a more sustainable model of community development.
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Ryan Nelson, director of business development, Project Nicaragua, Ohio State undergraduate senior, nelson.1275@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Kassidy D'Annolfo, senior co-president of Project Nicaragua, Ohio State undergraduate senior
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Ryan Nelson, director of business development, Project Nicaragua, Ohio State undergraduate senior, nelson.1275@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Kassidy D'Annolfo, senior co-president of Project Nicaragua, Ohio State undergraduate senior
Keywords
entrepreneurship, empowerment, accountability, development, education
Citation
Engaged Scholars, v. 7 (2019).