Running for Ethiopian plant-based food projects

My name is Jan, I am a teacher at St. Stephen's international high school in Rome, and I've been a (trail) runner for the past five years. I've started running competitive races in 2017 and I am the co-founder of Vegan Power Team, an Italian running and cycling team for vegan athletes competing in all kinds of competitions in Italy and abroad.

As a team, we raise funds for a number of projects and initiatives, such as animal sanctuaries and animal rights NGOs.

This year, I'll be running a number of difficult and ambitious races, including:

Trailrun delle Vie Cave  (Pitigliano, March 17) - 35 km, 1000m elevation gain

Rome Marathon  (April 7)

The lighter Ville Tuscolane  run (April 14 - Frascati) - 12km

MIUT Madeira  (Portugal - April 27) - 42 km, 2000m elevation gain


I'd like to give my races an additional purpose and I have decided to raise funds for A Well-Fed World's Plants-4-Hunger campaign, focusing especially on their Ethiopia project, as I might be visiting Ethiopia in June/July.

A Well-Fed World is an American NGO which focuses on plant-based solutions to world hunger and they work in collaboration with the International Fund for Africa to support schools in Addis Abeba and provide them with school gardens and bakeries and a well-balanced, nutritious and sustainable food programme.

I have worked with the WWF in Madagascar and I've run a project in Kenya in the past. My more recent experience was with students from my school in Rome on a service trip to the island of Gorée, in Senegal, where among other things, we set up school gardens.

I'll be running, therefore, to support a project that brings together my vegan ethics with a greater concern for nutrition and sustainable food systems.

Please support me in supporting this meaningful project!