Staff

Jeff Rose (Executive Director) is a graduate of the Master of Public Administration program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He has eight years combined experience in organizing and implementing community-based environmental programs in the United States, with two years experience in rural Guinea, West Africa. He has two years experience in writing, budget preparation, and analysis and he served as UNCW's Graduate School Association's Vice President.

As a Peace Corps Volunteer, Rose's primary efforts included training local villagers of Agro-forestry practices, which included reforestation, soil conservation, fuel-efficient stoves, tree nurseries, and composting. During his time in Guinea, Rose established a network of 43 Agro-forestry extension agents in 20 rural communities, who planted 20,000 trees and trained 300 additional people in these practices. Rose helped to extensively improve the communication and effectiveness the Peace Corps had in the Guinea Natural Resource Management program.

His work in Guinea continued until 2003. He returned to Wilmington seeking his masters and started volunteering with the Coastal Carolina Returned Peace Corps Volunteers group in 2005 and the then brand new organization, The Full Belly Project. Mr. Rose was hired as The Full Belly Project's first full time Executive Director in January, 2007.

Jock Brandis (Director of Research and Development) was born in the Netherlands but moved to Canada as a child. Brandis graduated with a BA in Anthropology in 1968. In his early twenties Brandis joined CUSO, the Canadian version of the Peace Corps and was transferred to West Kingston, Jamaica where he taught elementary school education.

After volunteering in Jamaica, Brandis returned to Canada and began working with Oxfam, in their efforts to help aid the people of Biafra, an African country that at the time was fighting for its own independence from Nigeria. Brandis was on a team of people who would fly food across the military blockades of Biafra to help feed the starving communities.

It was these experiences in Africa that led Brandis to write his first book, The Ship's Cat. After his efforts in Biafara, Brandis returned to Canada, where he began work as a gaffer in the film industry. It was one job in particular that landed Jock Brandis in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he currently resides. Brandis continues to develop new appropriate technologies and coordinates volunteers to develop new appropriate technologies.

 

Jason  Colvin (Malawi Field Coordinator) A graduate of Witworth University's School of Global Management.  Colvin earned his BA in International business and graduated Cum Laude.

As a Former Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi, Colvin worked to establish viable business plans for rural farmers, covering business planning, market research, budgeting and bookkeeping. During his volunteer service Mr. Colvin's primary project work collaborated with several NGO's to help farmers build diversity into their local economies. 

In Malawi, Mr. Colvin assists C to C engineering with promoting the Universal Nut Sheller. Colvin oversees the business operations of manufacturing, selling and distributing the Full Belly Project's technology throughout Malawi.  He is tasked with seeking other potential entrepreneurs to manufacture our devices, as well as implementing a needs-based survey amongst farming groups.  This survey is an integral part of our Acceleration of Innovation Plan, it will provide FBP with a prioritized list for our future research and development efforts.

 

Brahm Fisscher (Assistant to the Director of R&D)  Fisscher holds a BA in industrial design from Auburn University, School of Architechture and Fine Arts. 
 Fisscher has worked in industrial design and engineering for over twenty five years. He has worked to develop devices and redesign devices to reduce parts, to cut overall costs, which fits hand-in-glove with the keep it simple philosophy of The Full Belly Project.

Fisscher's background in industrial design and design engineering is helping The Full Belly Project to refine our current designs and will help us to develop other designs in the future.

 

Board of Directors

Dr. John Slattery (President) has worked in international development since the early 1960s: 10 years with Peace Corps as a Volunteer, staffer, and trainer in India and Western Samoa; 18 years with the US Agency for International Development in Kenya and Niger; and in Washington DC as manager of an African agricultural research program and an Eastern Europe business legal assistance program, and finally in the early 1990s as Desk Officer for Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. He also designed, managed, and administered poultry, health, local governance, and disaster assistance activities. He has an MA and PhD in cultural Anthropology. Katherine E. Medina (Vice President)  is a former Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Cape Verde as a community development volunteer. During 2003-2005 Medina developed and supervised more than ten fundraising activities generating revenue for youth services and activities. Medina is a graduate of Hamilton College, where she earned a duel degree in Economics and Africana Studies.  Medina is currently a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch Wilmington. Jim Nesbit (Secretary) has been an educator for over 30 years, primarily a Kindergarten teacher who has had the privilege of working in many other diverse areas. Nesbit has worked as a navigator and electronics technician in the Coast Guard and has taught at all levels from Kindergarten through College. He worked in Staff Development for teachers, including designing and teaching the first computer course for teachers in the early eighties. Nesbit works with Full Belly to raise funds, recruit volunteers and promote the ideas and ideals of the Full Belly Project. John M. Fogg (Treasurer) is a retired Consumer Protection Attorney. John received his BA from the University of Missouri 1963, his JD from the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall) 1971, and was Corporate Senior Staff Counsel and Deputy Insurance Commissioner 1973 to 2001 at the California Department of Insurance. John was a Peace Corps Volunteer from 1966-8 in Portachuelo, Bolivia, establishing and maintaining village banks. He works with a local halfway house, is an insurance business consultant and trains his Irish Water Spaniel for hunt tests. He travels extensively with his wife, Eliza, maintains his fluency in Spanish and has an interest in gourmet cooking. Dr. Kennedy Ongaga was born and raised in the district of Kissi, Kenya. In Kenya, Dr. Ongaga worked with several community based organizations and Non-governmental Organizations. Mr. Ongaga received his Masters and PhD at the University of Michigan. His doctoral dissertation was on the role of Head teachers in implementing HIV/AIDS education programs, the relationship between schools, families and communities, and the meaning of such programs to students in rural secondary schools. Dr. Ongaga is currently an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington Jay Tervo served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Gabon, West Africa from 1983-7 in primary school construction. As a volunteer, he both built schools in villages and ultimately was responsible for the management and oversight of 17 Peace Corps volunteer constructed schools in rural areas. Jay has traveled extensively in both West and East Africa. Currently Jay is the owner of a company that publishes regional travel and tourism guide books on the coast of North Carolina. Rhonda Bellamy- is news director for Cumulus Broadcasting and host of "On the Waveline with Rhonda Bellamy".  In addition to lending her voice to film and stage performances, Bellamy is the author of "Moving Forward Together: A Community Remembers 1898."  Bellamy has served on several other non-profit board of directors including: Domestic Violence Shelter, Cameron Art Museum, New Hanover County Library Foundation and Cape Fear Habitat for Humanity. Kevin Hicks is the Market Leader and Manager of RBC Bank (USA), the US subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Canada. At RBC, Mr. Hicks is a sales manager and specialty business development officer working with not-for-profits, tech and life science start-ups and clients needing advice regarding the bank's off-shore capabilities.  Mr. Hicks is extremely active in community organizations, focusing on entrepreneurial development, environmental causes and charities benefiting economically disadvantaged children. Prior to working at RBC, Mr. Hicks was the national sales manager for a small technology company. Mr. Hicks graduated with a degree in economics from Wake Forest University in 1990. Larry Spencer- Spencer is a retired engineer, who most recently owned and operated a small-scale theme park in Carolina Beach, NC.  Spencer also worked as an engineer/manager hired to maintain a tire factory in Tanzania.  Spencer has served on the Board of Directors of the Coastal Canines. Training dogs are one of Spencer's favorite past-times.. Deron Fort- Currently Fort works at the University of North Carolina Wilmington as the Liason for Early College Transistion Program for Young Adults. Fort develops and coordinates policies for all aspects of the interaction between the New Hanover County Schools Transition Program for Young Adults (TPYA) and the University of North Carolina Wilmington.  TPYA is a small program supporting special needs students age 18 and over in life skills development necessary for the transition from high school to an adult environment. Joanne Nottingham-

 

 

The process of shelling works by centrifugal force and friction. The Universal Nut Sheller is a concrete cone within a cone, open at the top and bottom, with the interior cone being solid. The interior cone, or rotor, rotates on a shaft and has an attached handle (Note: only one moving part!). The user turns the handle around fast enough to spin the nuts to the outside through centrifugal force. The nuts fall between the surfaces and are rolled and squeezed, allowing the nuts and shells to fall through to the bottom. This mix of nuts and shells is then winnowed out. The sheller is adjustable and can shell: Coffee, Peanuts, Shea, and Jatropha.

Distribution of the Full Belly Project technology is primarily focused in  the country of Malawi and it will be for the next 3-5 years.

By focusing in one location we are hoping to impact the entire nation.

 The Full Belly Project is committed to providing training to our Malawian partners C to C Engineering in Lilongwe.  This family owned business will be manufacturing the Universal Nut Sheller and future technologies designed by the Full Belly Project. 

Through a series of trainings The Full Belly Project will empower C to C with the knowledge and skills needed to ramp up their manufacturing capability to meet the demand for simple agricultural devices throughout Malawi.

C to C Engineering will sell these simple devices as a for profit venture. 

The Full Belly Project does not believe in hand outs.  In fact we have seen how the hand-out model of international development can be detrimental to local economies.

Our Partners have signed a licensing agreement which permits them to reproduce our current and future technologies.   

By focusing with a  local  Malawian partner who is ideally situated to supply machines to farmers, we will be able to reach far more people much more efficiently.

The Full Belly Project is  also working with Total Land Care to implement a survey of over 100,000 farmers throughout Malawi.  This survey will be used to determine the needs of the people.  That information is what we will use for developing our future technologies.   Once a new technology has been developed we will provide training to our entrepreneurs so they can add it into their product line.

The development of these technologies will soon be done not only at our headquarters in Wilmington but through this website as well.  Join us as a member today and help us design the future of international development!!

 

 Previous Model

In the past we  distributed  through what we call “A Seed Project Contribution” which enabled individuals or organizations based in the US to take a kit and manufacture the UNS in developing countries.  A Seed Project Contribution is $700 (plus shipping) and consists of a set of molds and the necessary metal pieces to build three machines. Once the set of fiberglass molds has been acquired, an unlimited number of  machines can be made with metal purchased locally. A kit consists of two boxes, each weighing less than 50 lbs so they can be taken along as excess luggage on overseas flights.  Each kit comes with complete instructions. 

Experience has shown us that groups who have been trained at our headquarters in Wilmington produce far better results than those who didn't.

For quality control reasons The Full Belly Project now requires: Individuals or organizations seeking to make a "Seed Project Contribution"  must receive training how to build the Universal Nut Sheller. Please set this up by contacting us at: infoatfullbellyproject.org 
(Please replace "at" with @ to email us. This has been done to reduce spam attempts)

 

 

 

 

The Full Belly Project's board of directors has voted to concentrate our efforts in Malawi over the next 3-5 years.  This is being done to demonstrate the impact our technology can have at a national level.  

Since 2003  shellers have been introduced through third party organizations. As of  winter 2008, The Full Belly Project has one or more machines in each of the following developing countries: The Bahamas, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, India, Kenya, Mali, Malawi, Nigeria, Philippines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tajikistan, Uganda and Zambia.

 

At this time, our biggest need is funding. We understand that some can give more than others, but every gift is important no matter the size. While large leadership gifts are crucial to Full Belly’s economic stability in these trying times, the $10, $25 and $50 contributions add up to impressive sums and make a direct impact. 

Any amount you can give is greatly appreciated and will be used wisely!

The Full Belly Project is a registered 501(C)(3) non-profit organization.
Your donations to this organization are tax deductible. 

To make a donation you can click here to donate online! 

~or~

You can send a check to:

The Full Belly Project
PO Box 7874 Azalea Station
Wilmington, NC 28406
USA

 

Thank you for your support.

The Full Belly Project is dedicated to our mission statement.  All donations go to further our mission: Our mission is to design and distribute income-generating agricultural devices to improve life in developing countries.

Your donation may be used to provide training to villagers in Malawi.  It may go towards research and development of new appropriate technologies. We have costs which we must cover, including machine parts, shipping, labor and administrative costs. To see our IRS Form 990 Click here, to view our latest Budget Click Here

 By providing your contact information, we will keep you updated on how your donations are being used to help improve life for people in developing countries.

 

The Full Belly Project meets every Saturday morning (unless otherwise posted on our website) at our headquarters (1020 Chestnut St. Wilmington, NC 28401) at 9:30 AM. The organization encourages anyone interested to participate. There are volunteer opportunities ranging from Data Entry to Welding. If interested, please send an email to info@fullbellyproject.org   by 5:00 PM the Thursday before, so that we can have an idea of how many people to expect. 

or

If you live in the Wilmington, NC, area, The Full Belly Project is looking for people with a variety of backgrounds and technical experiences to become a "Design Team Leader”. Team leaders will be assigned to work with groups of volunteers for our Saturday volunteer opportunity. Team leaders will help us design new appropriate technologies for developing countries. If you'd like to join our design team, please email a brief description of your background and or your resume to  jeff.rose@fullbellyproject.org.

Simply fill out this form.    

The Full Belly Project will not share your information with any third party groups. Joining our mailing list will keep you informed on the latest activities surrounding the exciting growth of this organization.

The Mission of The Full Belly Project focuses our efforts in developing countries.  We provide training to local entrepreneurs in Malawi who manufacture and sell our technologies in accordance to The Full Belly Project's license agreement.  Our emphasis is on helping the people of Malawi.

However, often groups in the US wish to display our technology to help spread understanding and awareness of The Full Belly Project's mission.  If your organization is interested in receiving a display version of the Universal Nut Sheller we are happy to help.

A finished machine weighs 90 lbs, and costs $150 plus shipping. We will only ship to continental US addresses. 

The half size machine costs $100 plus shipping.

Contact us at our Headquarters if you'd like to help The Full Belly Project spread awareness and inspire innovation.

               910-452-0975