Hult Prize

A group of McGill students has been awarded $1 million for undernourished communities in urban slums.

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Written by Christina Reinwald
Published by August 15, 2013 | Boston Globe

"The problem: finding a high-quality source of protein for hundreds of millions of people that can be raised quickly, without consuming a lot of land, water, and other resources.

The problem: finding a high-quality source of protein for hundreds of millions of people that can be raised quickly, without consuming a lot of land, water, and other resources.
... Gabe Mott, an MBA student at McGill University in Montreal, said he and his teammates, the winners of the Boston regional competition, hadn’t expected to get into social entrepreneurship, but the Hult Prize opened opportunities.

Five students from the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University, Canada offered a rather innovative (read bizarre) solution to the challenge of the 2013 Hult Prize, considered by some as the Nobel Prize of the b-school arena. Responding to the challenge of developing a viable social enterprise to tackle the challenge of food security for urban slum dwellers, these students have offered crickets as an inexpensive source of food as well as a new source of income.

This fall, Carleton alumnus Gabe Mott and his team will stand before world business leaders and former U.S. President Bill Clinton and ask for $1 million.
His goal is to help put crickets on dinner tables around the world.

If I broke the news to you that MBA students tend to be highly competitive individuals, you may not be too surprised. The Pope is, also, apparently Catholic, and all politicians are credible and reliable.

A group of McGill students (Mohammed Ashour, Gabriel Mott, Shobhita Soor, Jesse Pearlstein and Zev Thompson) hope their plan to breed crickets for use as a viable food source will be a million-dollar idea. The five students will be up against teams from Harvard, MIT and Yale as well as other teams from around the world.

Desautels MBA students Mohammed Ashour, Jesse Pearlstein, Shobhita Soor, Zev Thompson, and Gabriel Mott, beat out over 40 teams, including Harvard, MIT and Yale, to win the Boston Regional Finals of the 2013 Hult Prize.

The Hult Prize is dedicated to launching the next wave of social entrepreneurs. With this year’s challenge centered on the global food crisis, the Desautels team’s business plan involves growing crickets into a viable food source.