BBC visits Wilmington to profile non-profit project competing for $20,000

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A crew from the BBC visited the Port City this weekend to profile a Wilmington-based non-profit trying to solve hunger around the world. The Full Belly Project distributes machinery molds to developing countries. It is up for the top prize in the BBC’s World Challenge.

Full Belly Project found Jock Brandis said his organization does “international development by putting a factory in a cardboard box, and the cardboard box gets opened with good instructions and people make the kind of machinery that they need in order to really get a leg up on in terms of prosperity.”

One of the molds the Full Belly Project sends out creates a machine called a Universal Peanut Sheller. It can shell 125 pounds of peanuts per hour. This echos their motto, “you can’t have prosperity without efficiency.” Brandis says the group finds a way to get more product from a day’s labor or from an acre of land anywhere in the world.

The World Challenge’s top prize is $20,000. Members of the Full Belly Project feel that if they can take home the prize their efforts can grow.

“We’ve been a baby crawling and trying to walk. Now we’re walking with very tentative steps,” board member Joanne Nottingham said. “Winning this award would allow us to walk on firm footing, and once we start walking, I have no doubt that we’ll be running and doing great things all over the world.”

The BBC will produce 30-second videos on each of the 12 final competitors. Voters can watch the videos then cast their vote online. In the end three finalists will travel to Amsterdam, where they will find out who has won.

The Full Belly Project needs your votes. Voting begins September 27 and runs until November 12. To cast your vote visit http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk.