‘Never underestimate where even the smallest project can end up’
The story about how a student project turned into a global success for five international students from the Danish School of Media and Journalism
When the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Nordic Office in Copenhagen was approached by the Danish School of Media and Journalism, asking us to collaborate with a group of students from the TV and Media Production programme, little did we know that the result — a one-minute video for social media — would be a success and end up on global accounts all over the world.
The task we gave them was beyond challenging: turn the findings of the WFP report Counting the Beans, The True Cost for a Plate of Food Around the World into a short, compelling video for social media. In the report, WFP had worked out the cost of a basic plate of food to people in 33 developing countries, and expressed it as a share of average daily income.
The inspiration came from The Economist’s Big Mac index, but we turned it upside down and inside out. Instead of an aspirational international food item, we focused on a staple meal largely common to all humanity. And instead of nominal prices, we calculated purchasing power prices. We then compared this to a New York baseline to highlight the vast gaps in global food affordability.
It was a highly technical equation that was hard to explain in a social media-friendly video. “Every time someone would ask us what our video was about, we would not be able to express it,” recalls Irene Chirita, one of the five students behind the project.
The students chose to compare the cost of a simple meal in Sweden with one in South Sudan. The result was staggering. Whereas Swedes spend 0.7 percent of their daily income on a simple meal, a South Sudanese will spend 155 percent. Not even a day’s work would be enough for a South Sudanese to afford a simple meal.
“We figured that the only way of really getting through to people would be if we could make them relate,” student Catherine Poulsen explains. “During this project, we learned how to pass on complicated information in a way that it can be understood even without reading the report.”
Pelle Hegelund. Photo: Irene Chirita
The students worked hard — and their efforts paid off. What started as a student project with no prospects of being used beyond WFP’s Nordic social media platforms, within no time, the video was spread on all over the world — not only through WFP’s global accounts but also through the United Nations Twitter account, which has more than 10 million followers.
“The response has been incredible, I still can’t believe how many people are interested,” says Irene. “Working with WFP has been a great experience. Doing this has really taught me to never underestimate where even the smallest project can end up. I am proud to have been a part of the work the WFP is doing, and I am proud to be able to put this project on my resume.”
The Counting the Beans video can be seen here.
The Counting the Beans video was created by Irene Chirita, Catherine Leonhard Poulsen, Anastasia Kotlyarovskaya, Pelle Hegelund and Emma Olivia from the Danish School of Media and Journalism.
The Counting the Beans, The True Cost for a Plate of Food Around the World can be found here.
