Meet the new Task Force of World Disco Soup Day 2021!

World Disco Soup Day 2021: A group of worldwide activists dreaming to stop food waste.  

The 24th of April will mark the date of the 5th World Disco Soup Day 2021, the international Slow Food Youth Network campaign to raise awareness about food waste. Every year a group of activists from all over the world are joining forces to coordinate the global events: time to meet this year’s Task Force!  

The new members:  

FROM KENYA

Jane Njeri currently is a student at University of Pavia, Italy pursuing a master’s degree in International Cooperation and Development. She focuses on holistic social change programmes to proactively respond to community needs in inclusivity, innovativeness and the use of integrated approaches aimed at enhancing capacity in people. Jane is an active member of Slow Food Youth Network Kenya where she served as a facilitator in the department of Sustainable Agriculture & Home Economics aimed at improving people’s livelihoods.  In addition, she was involved in the implementation of the International Fund for Agriculture project “Empowering Indigenous Youth and Their communities to Defend and Promote their Food Heritage”.  

FROM ISRAEL

Shai Rilov is the Co-Founder, CEO of Robin Food, an NGO focusing on engaging the public in the story of food waste in tasty and educational ways in Haifa, Israel. He is a social entrepreneur and sustainability activist and has been leading the Robin Food operation in the last 5 years. He is a Heschel Sustainability Center trustee and head of volunteer team, impact development and marketing. Shai’s work at the WDSD Task Force is also supported by Nik Shari. 

FROM THE PHILIPPINES

Patty is a Bachelor’s degree holder Major In Hotel, Leisure, and Restaurant Management from St. Scholastica’s College, Manila. She has been part of various student body organizations, including the Student Council, throughout her school years. Growing up, she was always keen to learn new things, help others and hang around the kitchen, watching and helping her mom, dad and lola whip up some delicious food in the kitchen. Her love for food is neverending. Last year, she was the National Coordinator for the Filipino Food Month – a month long celebration of Filipino Food and Cultural Heritage. In college, she spearheaded the World Disco Soup Day 2019 in St. Scholastica’s College, Manila where they saved almost 200kg of food that were served to hundreds of guests. At present, she’s working as a Guest Relations Case Manager and is a very active member of Slow Food Youth Network Philippines. 

FROM VENEZUELA

Ing. Saúl Elías López is graduated in Agronomy at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, with a specialization in rural agricultural development and a postgraduate in Agronomy. He is president of the Venezuelan society of agricultural engineers, coordinator of SFYN Venezuela, and CSAYN Venezuela and founder of the observatory of the right to food (Observatorio del Derecho a la Alimentación). 

FROM MEXICO

Pao Rodríguez is a 26 years old Mexican activist, member of SFYNMx and of the Colectivo Disco Sopa in Mexico City. She defines herself as a “lover of the never ending process of learning about food” and she firmly believes that a discosuouppy attitude can help stimulate changes all over the food system. 

FROM THE USA

Catherine Zhang is an undergraduate student at Cornell University in the United States, where she is studying computer science, sociology, and nutrition. She is serving as a Project Coordinator for SFYN US this year, and she was inspired to join the Slow Food movement after reading Carlo Petrini’s book Slow Food Nation. Catherine grew up with a deep appreciation for food thanks to her Chinese immigrant parents and has loved experimenting in the kitchen since she was young. She is passionate about building good, clean, and fair food systems because food interacts with every other aspect of our geopolitical and cultural structures, and delicious, healthy food should be a fundamental human right. 

EXPERIENCED PILLARS OF THE TASK FORCE:  

FROM ITALY

Silvia Moroni, our communication strategy and social media lead. Silvia has recently started her own consultancy company called “Parla Sostenibile“. She is a gastronome, content creator and food activist. “I love talking about food and sustainability, natural wine and artisanal producers!”. 

CHRISTIE “I went to a Disco Soup in Jakarta in 2017 and was mind-blown by how little I knew about food waste. Since then, the ideas of Disco Soup really resonated with me, and in 2020 when there was an opening for the task force I jumped at the opportunity to see how I can contribute to the cause. At the time, I had just resigned from my corporate job in finance and started working on a family business, so I didn’t have much experience to share, just enthusiasm for creating awareness about food waste and what we can do to avoid it. I am glad that the team accepted my participation with open arms, and I have enjoyed working and getting to know everyone in the team. My background is in finance, and I am now working in batik (traditional Indonesian clothes) fashion. I would love to find some land in Indonesia to start a greener life in the future, build a food forest, live off the land and teach others how to do the same…” 

Supported by Jorrit Kiewik (SFYN Global director), currently based in Italy and Valentina Gritti (SFYN Global community and project manager), in The Netherlands.