Recipe for Success
Former international student and MBA graduate's cookies are treating malnutrition in West Africa
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
After graduating from Southeastern's MBA program in 2003, Armelle Kouton took more than business expertise back to her home country of the Republic of Benin, West Africa. She also returned with a cookie recipe that would change the lives of local children years later.
Using ingredients readily available in Benin, the cookies are packed with corn, peanuts
and soya flour to give a nutritional boost to children whose parents cannot otherwise
afford adequate food. According to Kouton, studies have been conducted and shown that
72 percent of children have recovered from malnutrition after eating the cookies for
two to three weeks.Kouton started a successful business in her home country 10 years
ago, using the profits to begin making nutrient-dense cookies to help improve the
health of children in her community. The cookies, called BB-Nutri, are based on a
peanut butter cookie recipe she learned from her Hammond, La., host mom while she
was a student at Southeastern.
Thousands of children have received BB-Nutri cookies, which are also distributed through local pharmacies and health centers. To produce the cookies, Kouton oversees a small factory with 20 employees. She hopes to increase production of the cookies with modern, automated equipment to reach even more children in need.
"My Southeastern MBA has helped me manage my business and given me many opportunities," Kouton said.
In addition to her business and humanitarian efforts, Kouton uses her business skills to teach workshops on running an effective business in her home country.
Kouton, center, is improving the health of children in her community with nutritional cookies
Kouton's work is being recognized from West Africa to Hammond – and beyond. Earlier this summer, she was invited to attend the U.S. State Department's African Women's Entrepreneurship Program in Washington, D.C., a program that identifies and builds networks of women entrepreneurs across Sub-Saharan Africa.
