In 2001, our founder Jock Brandis traveled to Mali to fix a small village's water treatment system.
While there he came across a woman who informed him that it would be of great service to her village if he could find an affordable peanut sheller for them. Upon returning to the United States he contacted peanut authority Dr. Tim Williams of the University of Georgia who told Brandis of a Bulgarian Peanut Shelling design.
Jock adapted the design with help from a friend Wes Perry. He went through several iterations of a redesign and one year later he completed the machine that is now called the Universal Nut Sheller.
In 2003, Brandis teamed up with a group of returned Peace Corps volunteers from Wilmington, NC to form the Full Belly Project.
Watch the video below for more info on Jock, Full Belly and the work that we do!
Full Belly Project's Awards and Grants
Project Awards
- MIT Ideas Award: $5000 to adapt UNS to make a pedal powered machine.
- Popular Mechanics Magazine: Breakthrough Award Given for the UNS.
- Carolina Challenge: Business Plan for setting up local entrepreneurs in Uganda.
- CNN Heroes: For FBP's establishing economic opportunities in developing countries.
- Tech Awards Laureate: For Technology benefiting humanity.
- Purpose Prize: $100,000 for extraordinary contributions in encore career.
- BBC World Challenge - 2010 Finalist
Grants Recieved
- Change Happens Foundation
- Royal Bank of Canada - Blue Water Project
- Barnabas Partners Foundation
- The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation
- Cape Fear Rotary, Wilmington, North Carolina
- Wilmington West Rotary, Wilmington, North Carolina
- Kirksville Rotary, Kirksville, Missouri
- Z. Smith Reynolds Small Grant GOS
