Hunger Can't Hide Here

As an undergraduate student, Gavin Armstrong became focused on hunger — a global health issue facing more than 800 million people.  In 2010, he travelled to Dadaab, Kenya, to volunteer at a UN refugee camp where over 500,000 people sought safety after fleeing drought and famine in southern Somalia. There, Gavin learned of a stark, hidden reality — billions of people were malnourished due to iron deficiency. Lacking iron in their diets, many families and entire communities were suffering from the impact — adults too weak and tired to perform basic chores, and children deprived of growth and development. “It was a massive problem that no one was really talking about,” he says.

An elegant solution

At the University of Guelph, Gavin gravitated to marketing, focusing on corporate social responsibility — an emerging concept in the early-2000s. Diving deep into the iron deficiency problem, Gavin decided to pursue his doctoral research in 2012 on high anemia levels in rural Cambodia. There, he found that villagers who cooked with a small piece of cast iron in their pots were experiencing improved health and life-changing nourishment. Recognizing the promise of the fish-shaped iron disc, Gavin embarked on his journey to social impact entrepreneurship and the Lucky Iron Fish was born — a simple yet elegant solution to combat iron deficiency.

A Certified B-Corp, the newly rebranded Lucky Iron Life gives back 1.5 percent to help communities suffering from malnourishment by donating products and training materials tailored to the community.  The team upholds strict social and environmental standards in manufacturing, packaging, and supply chain and has received B-Corp certification and been named ‘Best for the World’ by B-Corp.

“I am passionate about spreading awareness around social impact entrepreneurship. I think there is a perception that social businesses are more philanthropic than sustainable. I'm trying to demonstrate what is possible and that a simple idea, a simple concept, can profoundly impact a complex problem,” says Gavin.

A life changed

Recounting an impactful moment, Gavin shared a story about a woman in Guatemala who would wake up dizzy and tired each day, unable to help her daughter prepare for school.  Regular cooking with the Lucky Iron Fish transformed the mother’s health; eventually, she could enjoy walking with her daughter each day. “Those stories remind us why we're doing what we're doing. And when things are difficult, you can think about global impact, but the people and individuals motivate us to keep going,” he says.

The story behind the fish

Asked many times to recount how the Lucky Iron Fish came to be, Gavin considered writing a book. Like so many others, finding more time on his hands during the pandemic, the book idea bubbled to the surface.  After connecting with co-author Herb Shoveller, the pair got to work and Lucky Iron Life: A Social Enterprise Tackling Iron Deficiency was published in October 2023. While the book celebrates hard work and commitment to social impact, Gavin admits the writing process brought up some challenging memories. “I think it is important to talk about the journey, even if it was difficult,” he says. “I’ve been asked to talk at some high schools and had students come up and thank me for sharing my experience with bullying. It was important to talk about it and show that things can improve.”

Doing well and doing good

Gavin believes any business can drive meaningful change and that profit with purpose isn’t just possible, it is powerful. “You don’t even have to be an entrepreneur; you can be an “intrapreneur” and champion from within an organization,” he says.  While the products a business creates can do good in the world, Gavin insists that the real difference lies in how a business operates—its values, practices, and commitment to purpose.  “You can embed impact in the way you do business.”

Learn more about Lucky Iron Fish

by Wendy Jespersen