Future Healthcare Professionals in Final Pitch at Hult Prize IMU 2020

30 November 2020 (Monday) – Six teams. Five juries. Three months of preparation. Two hours. One Final Pitch. This is the culmination of the first ever Hult Prize IMU OnCampus Program organised by IMU Community Engagement and the pioneering team of Hult Prize IMU 2020 Organising Committee led by an IMU student, Chiah Ruey Chee. Audiences ranging from students to social entrepreneurs and key opinion leaders were present to listen to this Final Pitch. Since 2009, The Hult Prize Challenge has been leading a generation of young people to change the world by solving urgent global issues according to the annual theme such as youth unemployment, energy poverty and inequal education opportunities. This year’s Hult Prize Challenge is “Food for Good: Transforming Food into a Vehicle for Change”. According to the official Hult Prize site, participants are required to think about how their solution can create jobs, stimulate economies, reimagine supply chains and improve outcomes for 10,000,000 people by 2030.

The Final Pitch kicked off at 8.00pm sharp with an introductory video of Hult Prize followed by speeches from Prof Khoo Suan Phaik, Dean of IMU Community Engagement, and Prof Toh Chooi Gait, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Engagement and Industry Partnerships IMU, who graced the opening of the event. The emcee and host, Husna Cantik, then proceeded to introduce the five trailblazing social entrepreneurs who were the jury of the Final Pitch.

Each team then proceeded to pitch their ideas within a six-minute time frame, followed by a four-minute session for the jury panel to question and challenge the viability of their solutions.

Team	Idea Pitched
Team Food Connector	This team aspires to redistribute surplus food from restaurants and grocery malls to those in need.
Team Sprouts	This team wishes to raise health awareness and tackle food wastage problem by providing meal kits and dietetic consultation to those struggling to buy the appropriate amount of groceries.
Team Detoxers	The third group hopes to curb obesity by providing healthy meal plans and consultation services to obese clients for a healthier lifestyle.
Team VegeNice	This group advocates for vegetarian food to be easily accessible and convenient for all through an app that makes delivery of vegetarian food easier from restaurant to customer.
Team AHA!	Team AHA! pitched their idea of a personal “Farm In Your Phone” app that lets you to monitor the growth of your own fruits and vegetables remotely. The beneficiaries will be the B40 community who have limited access to cheap, nutritious fruits and vegetables.
Team Sustainize	Team Sustainize is looking to recycle and repurposed rice straws, the by-product of rice harvesting, to be biodegradable packaging material that is more environmentally friendly than plastic.

The jury had a separate discussion to determine the top 3 teams of the Final Pitch and the result was released on 14 December 2020.

Throughout the pitching competition, the ideas presented by each of these teams are remarkably diverse, covering the whole supply chain ranging from farming right up to food packaging and distribution. It demonstrates that social advocacy and running a successful enterprise are not mutually exclusive. Rather, social entrepreneurship paves the way to a better quality of life and a sustainable, socially inclusive future, which is a vision that  IMU Community Engagement supports. The Final Pitch was recorded and has been posted on the IMU Cares Facebook page for general viewing: https://fb.watch/2n625esf9f/.