Pictet Group
Nutrition
The Pictet Group Foundation pursues similar goals to the Group’s thematic nutrition investment strategy: helping to secure the world’s food supply, while reducing disease and mortality and preserving our planet.
We support organisations that address the problem directly by providing meals, micronutrients and education, as well as institutions that are committed to broadening current research on malnutrition and access to good nutrition. A selection of our projects is profiled below.
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650,000+People reached through Nutrition projects
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15,000+Women and children monitored
Fighting hunger and malnutrition
Gastromotiva, Brazil
Gastromotiva was founded in 2006 by social entrepreneur and chef David Hertz to address the dual crises of hunger and malnutrition in Brazil.
The value of early interventions in childhood nutrition have an outsized effect on more than just physical health. ©Luisa Dörr for the Pictet Group Foundation
Brazil faces an epidemiological transition, with 33 million inhabitants struggling with hunger and obesity due to poverty, sedentary lifestyles and aggressive food marketing.
Gastromotiva primarily operates in the favelas, where low-quality, processed and fried food is prevalent. The organisation aims to train Brazil's poor, unemployed youth in gastronomy while promoting healthy cooking. Initially focused on culinary roles for events like the 2016 Olympic Games, Gastromotiva shifted to developing 'social kitchens' that receive unused food and provide nutritious meals prepared by trained staff.
Supported by the Pictet Group Foundation, Gastromotiva aims to reach almost 42,250 vulnerable people in three cities by the end of 2023, providing free, healthy meals from 52 social kitchens. Beyond nutrition, Gastromotiva instils responsibility, pride and ambition in the communities in which they operate.
The environment is much more important than just the kitchen. When you start using the act of cooking to generate knowledge and self-learning, you are really working on the collective.
— David Hertz, Gastromotiva Founder
Watch the Food, Funk and Favelas video
Fighting malnutrition in Africa
Sanku Project Healthy Children, Africa
Sanku, a non-profit organisation, is dedicated to addressing ‘hidden hunger’ in East Africa, aiming to end malnutrition for 100 million people by 2030.
The staple food in East Africa, maize flour, is consumed by over 90% of the population in some countries. But this flour lacks essential nutrients, leading to chronic malnutrition in nearly a third of the population. Sanku partners with close to 1,000 small millers to fortify maize flour with vital micronutrients, making it accessible, affordable and more appealing to families.By providing mills with technology and business models for flour fortification, Sanku has improved the nutritional quality of the food people eat every day. This results in a foundation for healthier and more productive generations: reduced stunting, anaemia and neural tube defects, decreasing absenteeism from work and school, boosting economic development and ultimately saving lives.
Since partnering with the Pictet Group Foundation in 2022, Sanku's reach has expanded to 600,000 more people in Tanzania alone.
It’s estimated that in Tanzania, where we work, $380 million is lost annually in GDP due to sickness, health and malnutrition-related issues. We feel we’re at the start of making change at a higher level in the country.
— Felix Brooks-Church, Co-founder and CEO
Fighting hunger and malnutrition in Africa
Philani – Maternal, Child Health and Nutrition Trust, South Africa
‘Mentor mothers’ – the real heroes of Philani’s strategy. ©Philani, South Africa
Philani was created in 1979 to address the multiple health and social crises in the Eastern and Western Cape of South Africa: 30% of mothers are HIV positive and one in five children in the region does not survive until their fifth birthday. Philani identifies and trains ‘mentor mothers’ to connect families to medical treatment, provide nutrition education, monitor child development and build trust within communities.
Philani targets the critical first 1,000 days of child development, a period of significant physical and cognitive growth. The mentor mothers, who have emerged from difficult odds themselves to raise healthy children, make door-to-door visits, providing essential support and education. Studies show significant benefits for visited families, including reduced birth-related complications.
The Pictet Group Foundation supports Philani by funding 30 mentor mothers and 3 preschools that provide education and nutritious meals for vulnerable children. Philani's long-term approach and strong community relationships are continuing to bring hope to this challenging environment.
Philani identifies ‘positive deviants’ – women who have raised healthy children despite the overwhelming odds, then trains them to become mentor mothers.
— Ingrid Le Roux, Medical Director
Global nutrition challenges
UNICEF – Reshaping urban food retail environments for prevention of childhood obesity, East Asia and Pacific
UNICEF’s reshaping food environments project addresses childhood obesity in the East Asia and Pacific region by creating healthier urban food retail environments for families.
Despite progress in reducing hunger and malnutrition, obesity rates in the region have tripled in two decades fuelled by the consumption of widely available in-store and online foods that are highly processed and nutritionally poor.
Launched in Indonesia, the Philippines and China in 2021, the UNICEF project has shifted from government collaboration to direct engagement with food retailers to drive lasting change. It develops tools for local teams to foster better retailer practices.
The project, funded in full by the Pictet Group Foundation, has gained global attention, providing a model for regional action and enabling countries to tackle healthier food consumption at the point of sale.
The project aims to make urban food retail environments in this region healthier for children and families.
— Roland Kupka, Project Lead
Engaging with food retailers at the source of the problem is an innovation in UNICEF's tactics. ®UNICEF/2021/China/Yuyuan
Access to Nutrition Initiative, Global
The Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI) is dedicated to improving global nutrition through the transformation of markets. Its collaborative work tracks the food and beverage industry's contributions to addressing three global nutrition challenges: stunting, wasting and obesity.
ATNI, founded in 2013, envisions a world where everyone consumes a healthy, balanced diet. To achieve this, it advocates for improved government regulations and stakeholder capitalism, holds food and beverage companies accountable and collaborates with institutional investors.
This collaboration has resulted in the Investor's Expectation document, guiding investment in nutritious food companies, with Pictet as an active signatory. The Pictet Group Foundation supports ATNI's Nutrient Profiling Alignment and Complementary Food projects, which work towards creating a universally accepted definition of 'healthy' for food and beverages. This alignment enables global institutions to make meaningful comparisons and drive transparency and accountability among private companies regarding their products' impact on global health.
ATNI sometimes deploys a ‘game theory’ approach towards sectoral change – engaging the largest and most eager food companies ready to change, then building on that success to engage less enthusiastic corporations.
— Greg Garrett, CEO
About the Foundation
Pictet Group Foundation
Route des Acacias 60
1211 Geneva 73
Switzerland
The Pictet Group Foundation is a grant making foundation established by the Managing Partners of Pictet to pursue our long-term tradition of social engagement and environmental commitment.