Our journey began when Annie visited India in June 2011 after completing her sophomore year at Harvard. She and her brother had pioneered an SMS-based maternal and child healthcare program designed to help mothers and pregnant women remember their antenatal care check-ups and infant vaccinations.

On Annie's first day in Bangalore, India's 3rd largest city, she saw enormous, spiky jackfruits sitting on the pavement -- and wondered if they were an Indian variety of porcupine.

Fortunately, despite the fruit's intimidating physique, Annie bought a bag of jackfruit bulbs from a street vendor -- and discovered the most delicious food in the world. To date, jackfruit is Annie's favorite food. We can't wait to share it with you.

But we'd be lying if we told you it's been easy! In fact, launching Global Village Fruit has been the most challenging work we've ever undertaken. We're still here because we believe that jackfruit -- with its taste, nutrients, and potential contributions to international food security, poverty alleviation, and women's economic empowerment -- is worth it.

Would you like to hear our pitch?

Check out the Kickstarter we launched in our early days. --->