Success stories

New entrepreneur:
Elena Jiménez Romero (Spain)
Age: 39
Company name: Grandma Sita (Start-up)
Sector of activity: Community, social and personal services

Host entrepreneur:
Anne Katrine Heje Larsen (Denmark)
Age: 45
Company name: DISIE (17 years of experience)
Sector of activity: Community, social and personal services

Elena Jiménez Romero is a young entrepreneur from Spain who dreams of starting her own business to educate people about sustainable food culture and contribute to building a greener world. She decided to participate in the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme to achieve her goals. She chose Anne Katrine Heje Larsen, from Denmark, as her host entrepreneur. Anne runs DISIE, an innovative community of start-ups and small businesses that promotes social, cultural and environmental initiatives. Both entrepreneurs discovered the EYE programme through entrepreneurship advisers and EU institutions. They were excited by the opportunities the programme offers and wanted to benefit from the chance to network, build new collaborations and learn about new markets.

Anne and Elena began their exchange by developing food waste fundraising events, building community through plant-based meals, collecting surveys for the CHESS project, and researching the Danish food system, Nordic cuisine, and cookbooks. But suddenly they had to face challenges like the lockdown and new measures due to the Covid 19 outbreak. Needless to say, they had to change the activity plan they had previously made together and focus more on communication and graphic design. They tried to support each other as much as possible during a difficult time. This exchange was a unique experience for both of them. Currently, Grandma Sita is a member of DISIE, which has the common goal of contributing to green change and a more sustainable world.

Elena has achieved 3 concrete results so far through Grandma Sita: she has launched the Cooking Workshops against Food Waste, supported by food providers such as EAT GRIM and Kaffe Bueno, both former members of DISIE, among others. In particular, the "SUSTAINABILITY TASTES GREAT" workshops were developed to cook from surplus, use sustainable substitutes, and enjoy delicious, plant-based meals together while inspiring action. The Waste-free Aprons are the result of a collaboration between Grandma Sita and WAIR, also a former member of DISIE. Together they give textile and food waste a new life. The "BIG AND LITTLE FOODIES APRONS" are made from discarded tablecloths with cool pockets made from unwanted jeans and naturally dyed with avocado peels and seeds to create pink hues from natural sources. And finally, Grandma Sita gave birth to a mobile game technically supported by HackYourFuture Copenhagen, current member of DISIE. "EAT THE PAIR" is a memory game where the goal is to find pairs of traditional Danish foods.

Grandma Sita collaborates in other DISIE projects and events such as Green Impact Week, and CHESS Final Conference. The plan is to expand the collaboration to Creative Business Cup, Days of Impact and Climate Heroes. 

For more information, please contact the local contact points involved in the exchange:

New entrepreneur's contact point:
UNINOVA - Sociedade para a Promoción de Iniciativas Empresariais Innovadoras, M.P., S.L. (Santiago De Compostela, Spain)

Host entrepreneur's contact point:
InterCollege ApS (Aalborg, Denmark)

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