Writing Business Plans to Serve Developing Nations

Students in the third grade have been learning about economics, industry, and the demographics of developing nations through a simple product:  Plumpynut!  Inspired by the popular Nutella spread, Plumpy'nut is a high-protein, high-energy, peanut-based paste in a foil wrapper.  Plumpynut is used as a treatment for malnutrition in developing nations and has been saving lives in Africa.

Throughout our study, third graders researched the industry, economics, target market, and logistics of a nonprofit organization, and the impact Plumpynut has been having on a country like Niger.  Students then took their research and each designed a unique nonprofit business aimed at distributing Plumpynut to the far reaching corners of Niger.  Student grappled with terms such as national vs. international, developing vs. developed, famine, malnutrition, marketing, income, and funding.  While the project helped third graders develop a greater sense of the world and offered a formative introduction to technical writing, the heart of the project was to teach compassion and ignite a heart for service that comes so naturally to children. 

“Writing a business plan is technical writing,”  explains a third grader  “with a nonprofit you don’t have much money to work with and you have a lot of people that need your help.”  The same third grader sums up his thoughts on the project with these words “I had no idea how big the need was in Niger.  Because I wrote this imagined business plan, I think that one day I might start a real business and help even more people than I projected!”