Global honour for young Cork woman Sophie

CORK woman Sophie Healy-Thow hit the headlines internationally recently for scooping up one of six Global Citizen prizes in New York.

Her acceptance speech showcased to the world the eloquence, poise, and ion of this determined advocate, as well as a maturity that belies her young age - 26.

This win is the latest in a series of achieve-ments, and it certainly won’t be her last.

With values forged by the strong women in her life, Sophie is creating changes on a global scale through a global youth campaign she co-founded, Act4Food.

Interest in Food

Sophie’s move to Kinsale in her youth opened her eyes to food on her doorstep.

Initially, she says: “What was put on the table in front of me as a child was just the norm; when you think of what’s normal to people, it’s just what you have every day, right?”

Then her mum moved Sophie and her sister up to the Old Head of Kinsale, to be with their granny, and life changed - she was “surrounded by fields and farms, being in that rural area where you drive quite a distance to a shop or a busy, bustling town.

“It was right next to the sea,” adds Sophie, “and my grandmother would pop us on the school bus every morning.

But on the weekends, we’d go blackberry picking with her or picking apples from the tree, or she’d bring us down to the beach, and she’d show us what kind of seaweeds were edible and how to dry them and how to prepare them, like carrageen moss.

“She picked periwinkles and taught us how we’d eat them.”

Sophie’s granny was from Heir Island off the south-west coast of Cork.

“Back in her day, the only way to survive was to be sustainable and to pick your own food and make your own bread; otherwise, it just wasn’t going to happen, says Sophie. “And so I think that’s where my interest in food really stemmed from.

“It made me realise that food is a lot more than opening up the fridge and seeing what’s inside.”

Learning to Walk Away

Sophie is no stranger to awards. During her youth, she was thrust into the limelight but had the maturity and courage to realise that it was not the right environment for her.

“My journey in food began probably when I was about 14. I was very lucky to win the BT Young Scientist as part of a group, then the EU contest for young scientists, and the Google Science Fair. The win at the Google Science Fair catapulted me into an uncomfortable world. I guess it was a lot of young woman in STEM. I was like, first of all, I don’t really think I’m a young woman in STEM, but also, it should just be normal to have young women in the room! It shouldn’t be a surprise that I’m interested in science, food, agriculture and nutrition. Why is that surprising to people?

I ended up being in a lot of rooms where I was the only woman, and it felt unfair. 

"I couldn’t represent the voices of all women. I didn’t even have a university degree at the time. I felt highly uneducated to represent people in that way, and the rooms weren’t diverse. They didn’t showcase all voices and the weight and pressure of that was quite a lot.

“I was about 17/18/19 at the time. It felt like a lot of pressure. I also felt there were so many incredible women who were in the sector a lot longer than me and who deserved more of a space. There are a lot of people from different countries that deserve their stories to be told that weren’t getting the space, and it often felt like I was kind of patted on the head and basically being told ‘good girl’.”

Finding her Tribe

Sophie speaks with enthusiasm about how she subsequently found her tribe in youth groups, an open, collaborative environment that welcomed everyone.

“I pulled myself out of those rooms and brought myself more into youth groups, where there wasn’t a lot of pressure, and you could speak very openly. You weren’t thinking about the words that you had to say; way more collaborative and community and a bit more active than sitting on a in a dark room with a microphone. 

Those youth groups were just so diverse and active and eager to ask questions and get out there, it made me realise that I wasn’t alone.

Her work in this group brought her to prestigious events, but when Sophie and her colleagues were left out of proceedings, they forged a plan that changed everything.

“Through that, I found myself at the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals and in 2021 at the United Nations Food Systems Summit. There were only about six young people invited to be at this summit. We enter into this big decision-making room where every country has its own name tag and a little microphone, and they’re making quite big decisions about the future of food, whether on a national scale or a global scale. 

And the six young people are standing at the back of the room. We haven’t been given seats. And we’re looking at each other, and we’re thinking, ‘How can these decisions about the future be made without the future in the conversation?’

The Beginning of Act4Food

This UN Food Systems Summit was the unintentional catalyst for the development of Act4Food, and the group funneled their frustration at the current system into creating a platform that enables youth to be heard, included and active in transforming food systems.

“We were a bit frustrated, thinking we’re not just the beneficiaries of policies and decisions that politicians make for us, but we need to be the co-creators of these policies. We leave the room. We’re sitting in quite a damp corridor of this big UN building, and we come up with Act4 Food, which is a youth-led movement to transform food systems.

“The proposal for Act4Food was accepted by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, and we wrote a pledge. 

Right now, that pledge has 400,000 signatures, so these are 400,000 individuals online and offline who want to see food systems change.

Act4Food was born and has grown and evolved since its launch in 2021. Its momentum is set to continue as it enters into a year-long partnership with Global Citizen, with very generous prize funding of $10,000 that is going to be put straight into implementing youth-led projects in countries right across the world.

Developing 10 Global Actions for Act4Food

“But when we regrouped, we realised that a pledge is great, but it doesn’t cause action. How can we ask people to act?

“So, we held a consultation with over 100,000 young people from the ages of 15 to 25, and we asked them very simply, online and offline, ‘If you had a decision-maker sitting in front of you, what would you want them to do to transform food systems? But equally importantly, what do you commit to doing yourself?’

“As you can imagine, we got 100,000 different answers. Some are really funny, like ‘Food systems don’t match my vibe’. But some of them were really, really thoughtful and thought-provoking.

“We brought it down to 25, what we call actions for change.

“Then we had a voting mechanism of another 100,000 young people, and we were able to bring them down to the top ten global priority actions that young people want decision-makers to make, including that every child, whether at school, college or nursery, deserves a school meal, to banning single-use plastics, to prioritising regenerative agriculture, to ensuring employment for young agripreneurs.

“So now we have our top ten.” 

The scope of Act4Food’s reach is considerable, and is having an impact across the globe through a broad range of initiatives related to food and food systems, all led by youth leaders and volunteers.

Sophie said: “Act4Food is completely youth-led. Each year it’s led by a different set of 30 young people. Right now, we’ve scaled it to be in 27 countries.

“With over 400 volunteers worldwide, we do fun things. For example, we’ve held food festivals in Malawi and Nicaragua in Zimbabwe, to going into primary schools in India and Pakistan and doing more kind of rudimentary food systems, education and for young people, and then going into informal school networks and seeing what we can do that. Using games to bring young people more into food and educate them about food. In the UK, we were part of bringing school meals back onto the government’s agenda. The same in Canada. So we’re everywhere, we’re doing everything.” 

Champion for All 

Like all great leaders, Sophie puts the limelight on others and makes clear that this most recent accolade is not just hers.

“It really came as quite a shock, honestly, to be awarded something so big for the work I do. It’s a testament to all the really incredible young people I work with and have met. 

There are so many incredible young people working to change the course of food for their lives, but also people coming behind them for future generations. 

"So, it’s definitely not just mine. There’s a lot of young people who worked really, really hard to get where we are today.” Sophie has struggled with being taken seriously and sees this challenge as a common issue among the many she encounters in her role.

“I think the biggest challenge that I’ve found has been being seen as credible. As a young person, and I think maybe as a young woman, when I was starting out, I didn’t have my university degree. I just had this lived experience and this understanding, and I have lots of friends who’ve been through really difficult relationships with food. Whether it’s because of their socio-economic class or where they were based in the world, I found that stories and our lived experiences weren’t enough to be heard.

“It’s like a bitter pill to swallow if you’ve been through something; you’ve experienced it first-hand. Oftentimes, if you don’t have the numbers or the research to back you, It’s seen as, ‘Oh, that’s a really nice story you have’. So I think that was probably my biggest challenge, and also I find now working with a lot of young people, it’s their biggest challenge as well, especially when you have young people who are internally displaced, who don’t have a formal education, getting them that space and that voice, and also then having the confidence to share has been the biggest challenge.” 

Finding Her Voice 

Sophie has developed a considerable skillset, including public speaking, as seen at the recent awards ceremony, but confides she wasn’t always like that.

“I used to be incredibly shy. I wouldn’t say boo to a ghost. I didn’t want to talk. I was at the back of the group and wouldn’t contribute to anything. I’d have many opinions, but I’d be too scared to say them.

“When I realised that voices and opinions weren’t reflective of me. I felt that I really needed to speak up, and it probably comes down to having a lot of very strong female role models in my life who aren’t afraid to stand up and who will speak their minds, and aren’t scared of being the loud person in the room, because why should we be scared of being labelled as loud and opinionated?

I think it’s an important part of getting your voice out there, especially when you’re in rooms that aren’t dominated by people who are like you.

Taking Action 

Sophie has advice for those interested in learning more.

“If you want to be part of Act4Food, I would definitely suggest having a look at our website and following our social media s. We’re on everything. We also have an Irish youth leader leading the campaign in Ireland, an incredible young woman called Caitlin Breen. I would strongly recommend reaching out to her; she’s fantastic!” 

Strong Role Models 

When I ask how her mum and granny responded to her recent success, she shares they’ve been bowled over by the response and how ive everyone has been.

It was so lovely, and my mum and granny were actually in tears, especially the following day. And you know what? It wasn’t so much about receiving the award, but it was the amount of from home that really made them emotional. 

They realised just how many ers they have, and my gran now has people asking. ‘How do you dry the seaweed? Like, tell us how you do it. I want to do it. How do you pick periwinkles?’ Ellen Healy, Sophie’s Granny, is set for stardom herself, as Sophie has plans to capture her food-foraging wisdom.

“When I’m home next, I’m going to video her taking this seaweed, washing and drying it, to show people how it’s done because it’s so easy to do.” 

Cork Pride 

Sophie’s Cork roots are deep, and she speaks with great iration for the women of Cork and their unique strength and unity.

“I find Cork women are strong and soft at the same time, I think we have this strong mentality of we’re going to do it. And we’re going to do it well. And we’re going to be successful, and we’re going to say our opinions, and if we need to be loud, we’re going to be loud, and we’re not apologetic about it. And that’s what I love. It’s that rebel kind of blood through our veins.

“But on the other hand. I think we’re very empathetic towards each other and one another, and that if I’m going to succeed, I’m going to bring other people up with me. 

We’re not going to do it alone. There’s not one person who’s going to hold the flag at the top of the group. We’re going to kind of link arms and do it together. 

"That’s something I’ve noticed in all Cork women: we’re there for one another. And I think that’s really beautiful.” Her observations are reflective of herself, a force to be reckoned with thanks to the winning duality of her personality; strong and kind.

Speaking to Sophie, it is clear she has learned the power of her voice, of saying no, creating change, uniting voices, and that she will build a seat at the table where there is none. Her story is a lesson for us all on persevering against the odds and challenging the status quo.

Learn more about Act4Food on their website: Act4Food ( actions4food.org).