One hundred teams of young social impact innovators will receive grants to develop relevant skills and solutions that improve the resilience and sustainability of food systems, with a focus on regenerative agricultural practices, climate change mitigation and packaging sustainability innovations. The goal will be to help 500,000 people directly or indirectly.

Building on the success of a pilot project launched in Latin America in 2023, involving 20 young leaders and benefiting 130,000 community members, Youth Impact: Because You Matter aims to expand its impact globally and focus on the challenges facing food systems, a topic of great relevance to Nestlé as a food company.

A notable project from the pilot, Earth-IoT: Connecting the Field, used digital tools to improve efficiency, profitability, and sustainability in rural Mexico. This initiative led to a 50% increase in farmers’ income projections, a 40% reduction in fertilizer use, and a 30% decrease in water and energy consumption, significantly reducing the carbon footprint throughout the entire agricultural cycle.

Young people today struggle to find jobs because they lack the skills that employers are looking for. The agriculture and food sector has the highest rate of skills mismatch. At the same time, young people are showing less interest in agriculture, while agriculture is also evolving. The growing need to produce food sustainably while ensuring food security for a growing population means that new skills are needed.

That’s why Nestlé and UNESCO are supporting young people aged 18 to 30 to develop and launch business ideas that aim to make food production, processing, transportation and consumption more resilient and sustainable. At the same time, they hope to strengthen economies and ensure higher rates of youth employment.
“A highly skilled workforce and a more resilient supply of raw materials are essential to Nestlé’s long-term success,” said Laurent Freixe , Nestlé’s chief executive officer. “We are facing the challenge of feeding a growing population while addressing the cause and effect of climate change. These are critical challenges that require decisive action. That’s why we are supporting young changemakers to solve them.”

Youth Impact: Because You Matter will provide training and mentoring programs to beneficiaries, customized to their needs and priorities. These trainings will be developed in part by Nestlé’s Youth Entrepreneurship Platform (Yep), which will also serve as a central hub throughout the six-month capacity building program.

The program aligns with Nestlé’s broader Nestlé needs YOUth initiative, which has helped ten million young people access economic opportunities over the past decade. It also reinforces the company’s long-term commitment to youth as part of its renewed strategy to support young people to develop future-ready skills by 2030, to foster the next generation of employees, food and agriculture entrepreneurs.