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By Jo毛lle Rondeau, Research Assistant, McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics

On the evening of March 21, 2018, McGill students and entrepreneurs from diverse horizons gathered at , a collaborative space dedicated to entrepreneurship and social innovation in Montreal鈥檚 Mile-Ex neighbourhood.

The occasion was the 6th pitch and networking night for food entrepreneurs hosted by and , in partnership with the McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics (MCCHE). The idea for the event had emerged after the MCCHE鈥檚 involvement in the Food Convergent Innovation Forum a few months earlier. The March 21 pitch night was a special edition, focused on engaging food entrepreneurs previously or currently involved in competing for the聽Food and Agribusiness Convergent Innovation (CI) Prize聽in the聽McGill Dobson Cup competition, and others from the Montreal food ecosystem.

The Food and Agribusiness Convergent Innovation Prize was established in 2016 under a partnership between the聽Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (FAES)聽and the聽McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics (MCCHE). It is annually offered to support a venture in the areas of agriculture, food and agribusiness that clearly intertwines technological innovation, social innovation, and institutional innovation to simultaneously derive measurable economic and social benefit(s). In 2018,聽Trussbridge has聽joined FAES and MCCHE in awarding the $5,000 prize.

Following a warm and energizing welcome by Laura Howard, co-founder of 搁茅肠辞濒迟别, and Jonathan Chaloux, Esplanade鈥檚 Head of Operations and Programming, Desautels Assistant Professor (Research) Nii Addy presented the concept of convergent innovation (CI), and the related research conducted by the MCCHE as part of the SSHRC-funded Food: Locally Embedded, Globally Engaged (FLEdGE) research partnership. Welcoming addresses were followed by short pitch presentations.

In all, seven startups pitched, of which five were led by McGill students. The five McGill led startups are listed below, in the order of their presentations with a description in their own words:

1. transforms the concept of traditional trail mixes by introducing dehydrated beans and re-purposed fruit, providing an affordable alternative that combats food waste.
2. HumaNuts/Kajou鈥檚 vision is to be the largest premium cashew processor and trader in Ivory Coast and to provide sustainable and attractive income opportunities to local farmers and their families.
3. Rawlin聽is a vegan grab-&-go food service offering healthy and convenient Japanese rolls to Montreal university students at an affordable price.
4. cultivates some of the rarest, most beautiful and delicious mushrooms around! We do this exclusively on post-consumer organic material and we handle all of our own waste by feeding it to our worm composting system.
5. specializes in eco-friendly edible utensils to celebrate life's sweetest moments.

Other members of Montreal鈥檚 鈥淔oodtrepreneur鈥� community that pitched included:

1. - A non-profit organization whose mission is to offer edutainment and culinary leisure activities to families and children.
2. - A revolutionary product developed by PODnet that provides the environment for steady and cost effective whole year vertical growing.

A panel of mentors from Montreal鈥檚 food and social entrepreneurship ecosystems provided feedback to the pitchers.聽Mentors included: Marina Jolly, Co-Founder of ; Laura Charpentier, Executive Director of ; Matthieu Salou, Marketing & Business Development Director at ; Tim Murphy, Farm Manager, ; Jonathan Chaloux, Head of Operations & Programming at ; Pascal Beauchesne, Director of the Innovation working group at .

The event ended in a networking session over tastings of the startups鈥� food products, including rolls from Rawlin, reMIXed鈥檚 BEANBARK snacks and HumaNuts鈥� cashew butter. The enterprises were thus able to receive useful feedback about their products from event participants. and were also present to provide additional refreshments and information about their food products.

For more information on this event, please contact Jo毛lle Rondeau, Research Assistant at the McGill Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics: joelle.rondeau [at] mcgill.ca听听听