Red Star Yeast invests in So They Can’s mission

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Red Star Yeast invests in So They Can’s mission

29 Sep 2025

Annie Hollon

Annie Hollon is a journalist, copywriter and social media strategist from the Dallas, Texas area. She found a love for magazine writing during her time at the University of Alabama where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, double majoring in public relations and English. Beyond writing, you can find her expanding her library, attempting to teach herself the guitar and trying new hobbies.

MILWAUKEE, WI — This past spring, Red Star Yeast, part of the Lesaffre portfolio, announced its partnership with So They Can, an international non-governmental organization committed to offering access to quality education throughout Kenya and Tanzania.

Its efforts include investments in resources such as farms located on school campuses to help create the conditions necessary to support a positive academic outcome.

“Key educational indicators such as attendance and achievement rise when students have access to proper sustenance,” said Thomas Benner, CEO of Red Star Yeast. “We want our involvement to create a lasting impact.”

To gain more insight into the ingredient company’s partnership with the non-profit organization and So They Can’s impact, IBIE 2025 attendees dropped in to Mission Possible: Feeding the Future, an IBIEducate session presented by Emily Whitehouse, partnerships manager at So They Can.

“Through our partnership with Lesaffre and Red Star Yeast, we’ve been able to come up with some tangible, practical solutions to address something that can feel quite overwhelming sometimes: trying to end child poverty and child hunger,” Whitehouse said. “Through our partnership, we’ve been able to change what seems impossible into a mission that is possible.”

Through this relationship, Red Star’s financial contribution supports several Tanzanian partner schools with the resources needed to produce their own food by establishing school farms and orchards.

Integrating these resources, Whitehouse said, helps children have at least one nutritious meal at school each day, which can help their learning journey. These students can also take the agricultural skills they learn home with them, starting mini gardens within their communities.

“You can imagine the ripple effect of people learning how to grow their own food and the huge impact on food security in that region,” she said.

Beyond the food itself, establishing these farms and orchards can also provide schools with an additional income source by selling any surplus food and reinvesting the proceeds in the school.

In fact, the Lessafre brand’s contributions have supported some key investments in Ngambo Primary School in Kenya, including its school farm, which will help the school provide lunch to its students.

“We’re so thankful for our partnership with Lesaffre and Red Star Yeast,” Whitehouse said. “I have seen it for the past year. Every day, they live their values of better nourishing and protecting the planet.”

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