In the small town of Atoyac, Mexico, an Aggie knew hunger was seriously affecting people, and he wanted to find a way to help.
CEO and President of End Hunger Co. Juan Zermeno, Class of 2016, wanted to make a difference in the lives of children and families who suffer from hunger. End Hunger was born in November of 2017 thanks to resources and advice from the McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship’s Startup Aggieland program. The company provides care packages to families in the town of Atoyac in the state of Jalisco, Mexico from sales of End Hunger snacks sold online and in the MSC bookstore.
Zermeno and his family chose this area to begin working on his mission to end hunger because they are from the nearby city of Guadalajara and have owned a ranch in Atoyac for generations.
“[We especially want to] help kids get better nutrition because we believe that malnutrition in children goes a long way in a bad way, especially in third-world countries where a lot of the times kids are going to school and they didn’t have breakfast or dinner last night,” Zermeno said.
Zermeno said there is no way children are capable of learning in class when they are malnourished, and their poor performance in school could lead to trouble, such as joining the local mafia or gangs.
“It’s not like they can pay attention in school and perform well if they’re suffering from a condition like malnutrition or anemia or something like that,” Zermeno said.
In addition to distributing care packages to the community, End Hunger also provides resources for education and healthcare of the individuals within the community. This includes teaching methods for cooking the food from the care packages and encouraging proper healthcare practices with doctors who volunteer with the company.
As of this semester, End Hunger provides Aggie Outdoors with their snack products for camping trips and the students post and promote the brand on social media, according to kinesiology senior and president of Aggie Outdoors Alex Thompson.
“[Juan] is an awesome guy, and we just loved the mission and loved his passion with it,” Thompson said. “To help him out, we are going to take pictures of the snacks, post them, tag him. We also have an ambassador week for his website [where] our group can order his snacks through the website with our code.”
Economics senior and President of Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization Carlos Ribera is also teaming up with End Hunger. After connecting through social media and becoming good friends, Carlos and Juan are working together to help continue build the growing company.
“We’re starting essentially an affiliate program with End Hunger, and we’re planning on helping other organizations do it too,” Ribera said. “It all started from a DM message, turned into a friendship now turned into a partnership.”
Zermeno said this is only the beginning and he hopes to see his snacks become as widely sold as KIND or Cliff bars. Eventually, he hopes to help many more communities combat hunger and learn how to better their lives through empowerment from education.
“The more that we expand our sales, the more that we can actually replicate this in different communities all over the country of Mexico and potentially in different countries everywhere,” Zermeno said. “As long as we have motivated individuals who are willing to help, we’re going to be able to expand this.”