Power Foods

How do you change the world with business? Listen to the story of Anna Temu. It is the story of one of the most focused and tenacious entrepreneurs in the world.

Anna Temu came from a one of the poorest areas in the world in a rural region of Tanzania. Her family was a bit better than the poorest of the poor because they had a business. Since 1950, her father had operated a diesel powered milling machine. They milled many things, but Anna’s favorite was finger millet because it produced a porridge or flour that is both delicious and nutritious. Millet is a very tiny, very hard grain that has the added benefit of being drought resistant. However, much of the millet they milled was bought up by beer producers and did not get back to feed people who needed it. Her life’s dream: to operate this machine to feed the people of her town.

Since she was not from a prominent family and even more disadvantaged as a woman, Anna had to work several times harder in school to get to the next level. Even today in Tanzania, only 7% of the best or most connected students are selected to continue on to high school. Only 2% go to college. Anna traversed these challenges and was admitted to the University of Dar es Salaam to study food production.

Anna studied food production because she wanted to operate the milling machine to its maximum advantage. There were only a handful of women in this area of study, newly offered by the university because of the importance of increasing the food output in the nation. She says that in those days, other students mocked them as taking a glorified cooking or home economics classes. Then while she was at university, hardship struck. Her father died. To make matters worse, because of gender and family traditions, her brother inherited the milling machine. Maybe it was from these difficulties or her disadvantaged background, but someone that knows her from that time told me that Anna struggled in her studies. But she persisted: it took her five years to complete her three year degree and proudly, in 1984 she graduated.

She had a degree, her beginning know-how, but no milling machine and no money. If she is anything, Anna is focused and persistent. So she found employment in a bank and for ten years she saved her money. Then she bought her own machine. This is not the end of the story, but a new beginning. Her dream is to feed people.

That first machine was purchased eight years ago and today Anna is still operating her business successfully. Even in the United States, SBA statistics show that hardly a quarter of businesses survive that long. But Anna has faced down even longer odds – really the story of her whole life. Today she has 30 employees. She freely says, “You know, sometimes I hate my business because of the mistakes I have made. They are so expensive of a way to learn.” She says this with determination in her eyes, passion in her voice, and a little humor, too. I wish you could sit with Anna as I have.

She began to develop recipes based on high nutrition. To do this she uses mixtures of grains and legumes like millet, maize, legumes, and soybeans. She has her food analyzed at the university to keep improving protein and vitamin content. Her dream is to become more sophisticated in adding nutrients and expand her capacity to meet demand and feed people. Her food is truly life changing because it is so much more nutritious than plain ground maize or rice which are typical staples. And I tasted some of the quick cook (precooked) porridge. Even in its dry state, it is delicious. She has developed a complete line of products.

Because infrastructure is so limited, she has had to order the seeds, train the farmers, suffer crop failures, and even after all that have other buyers intervene to take her crop. Today, she is working directly with farmers in seven far flung regions of Tanzania, one of the largest countries in Africa! She has had machines break and because of no money to repair, suffer diminished sales. Every day’s production is sold that day. Even in all these challenges, she has been achieving nearly 50% per year growth until last year when machine failures caused a flat year. She tried a bank loan to grow, but the 25% interest rates nearly killed her. She says she will never do it again.

When she learned of our program to invest in and help small businesses, this fierce woman had her eyes well up with tears.

An answer to years of prayer and wondering how to move her dream forward.

We spent much time looking at her accounting, her blueprints for a new factory, sales materials and her products. Her food goes to schools that have programs to feed children, aid organizations, and grocery stores. She has six “sales girls” that do most of her sales and travel the nation by bus managing the bulk of her sales.

I need to tell you that at about this point in our conversation Anna took a call on her mobile phone. She began to shout animatedly into the phone. When she hung up, she told me that she learned that her younger sister had just died of breast cancer. Her sister was the mother of ten young children including four sets of twins and a husband that had abandoned her.

Ten more orphans in a nation that has hundreds of thousands.

Millions of men without jobs – only 15% of non-farm workers are employed.

Women that struggle to save – much less raise – their children.

But filled with good people that work harder, pray harder, love harder, try harder than any I know.

This is why Cheetah exists.

The answer is not more healthcare: that is not sustainable because it is giving without end. People need to be able to pay for it themselves. The answer is not more orphanages. The children grow up and are returned to the street because there are no jobs. But studies show that people that have jobs have fewer children, less AIDS, more stable families …and hope.

This is why Cheetah exists.

We cried a bit and prayed together.

What does one say? What would you say?

I said I would return in a few days. But she stood, composed herself and insisted that we go and see the factory, some distance away. By the end of my tour, she was distracted. She said it was time to go home and put on her mourning clothes.

I wish that you could have met Anna Temu with me.