The Clean and Green Club

As an MBA student doing an internship with the United Nations, Alicia Polak was in South Africa in 1999, learning everything she could about the culture, the economy, and how she as an American could make a difference. Then she worked for the Freeplay Foundation, distributing wind-up radios to villages without electricity, and seeing the changes a simple thing like a radio can make in the lives of villagers.

A brief detour into investment banking came to an abrupt halt following 9/11, when she realized this was not the kind of work she wanted to do; she wanted to make an impact on the world. Loving South Africa as she did, she first went back to Freeplay, and then in 2004, she began a cookie company near Cape Town, developing recipes using indigenous all-natural ingredients and employing local women who, often,had no previous employment experience. Her markets were local hotels and restaurants.

Selling the original company to local entrepreneurs in 2005 , she started The Kyaha Cookie Company with a focus on export, and began developing markets in the U.S. Currently, some 500 Xhosa women are co-employed by Khaya and another company, in an area where unemployment among women heads of households can reach 70 percent. The name Khaya comes from one of the townships in the area.

Her recipes include many “nuraceutical” ingredients grown in that region of South Africa, including roiboos and grapeseed.

From a Green perspective, does it make sense to ship cookies halfway around the world even if it does have a positive impact on employment and farming? Here’s Polak’s response:

I fill a 20-foot shipping container to the rim with cookies. 17,000 boxes to be exact. My container goes on a ship that is filled 7 stories high with containers. Every ounce of space is utilized. I am using far less waste than the diesel truck filled with Dole Lettuce packets going from California to New Jersey.  Modern ships are a very efficient way of moving cargo. The best of the huge diesel engines they use convert over 50% of the energy in the fuel to propulsive energy fed to the propeller. The best of petrol car engines struggles get 12% to the wheels.

Others obviously agree. Polak has won considerable  press coverage and acclaim, including the 2007 Food Network Edible Entrepreneur Award.

Visit Khaya Cookie Company on the Web at https://www.khayacookies.com/