Kelly McJannett On Creating Equitable Food Systems And Transforming Education In Remote Areas

Kelly McJannett is a visionary social entrepreneur and global trailblazer in harnessing AI technology for the greater good of humanity. Having pioneered highly scalable, place-based, turnkey agri-solutions to address food security and childhood malnutrition, Kelly is an experienced and passionate leader in multidisciplinary approaches to addressing societal challenges.

Kelly is the co-founder and CEO of Food Ladder, a social impact scale-up utilising AI and advanced agri-tech to address the global issue of food insecurity. With a laser-like focus on the next generation, Kelly and her team at Food Ladder employ the power of AI and machine learning coupled with the physical structure of hydroponic greenhouses in remote schools to promote education, health and economic participation with a holistic focus on wellbeing.

By leveraging cutting edge technology, including being a first mover in integrating Quantum technology to measure the therapeutic benefit of the program to young people, Kelly is an unparalleled trailblazer. Kelly’s goal? To address immediate human need, support critical environmental outcomes, assist in the automated production of food in remote communities, and prepare communities who are vulnerable to the effects of catastrophic climate change.

A captivating orator, Kelly holds a Bachelor of Communications from the University of Technology Sydney, and an MBA from The University of Sydney where she was awarded the David Anstice MBA Scholarship for Community Leadership. Kelly has also attended INSEAD for Executive Management in Social Entrepreneurship.

Accolades include The University of Sydney Dean’s Prize and Leadership Excellence Award as well as the Australian Financial Review’s BOSS 2024 Most Innovative Companies Award. She was named in Australia’s 100 Most Influential Women by the Australian Financial Review and recently won the AACSB Global Influential Leaders Award. Kelly is also a member of The University of Sydney Business School Board of Advice. In June 2025, Food Ladder was named a finalist in the Australian Financial Review’s AI Awards in the Community Engagement Category.

Kelly discusses providing equitable access to food in remote communities through innovative agri-solutions, and why collaboration and grit are essential traits for social entrepreneurs to inspire lasting impact and systemic change.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Tom Allen] - To start off, can you please share a bit about your background and what it was that led to your passion for social enterprise?

[Kelly McJannett] - I am incredibly passionate about the work we do at Food Ladder. For me, this work has grown out of lived experience and insights I gained some 15 years ago while living and working in remote communities for an education initiative.

It was extraordinary work that took me to some of the most remote communities in this country. It was a wonderful privilege to work alongside First Nations people, community leaders, and brilliant educators who were doing extraordinary work not only in education, but also in community development and social work. This is often the case with teachers in low socioeconomic, remote, and regional communities.

When I was living there, I realised I was experiencing extreme food insecurity myself. This stems from multiple factors, with one being remoteness and the ridiculous situation we have in this country where food is grown in one place and then sent to the other side of the country.

This comes at a significant cost to both the quality of the food and the prices people must pay in shops. I experienced firsthand that it was not possible to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables in these communities.

I could see the impacts of this playing out in schools. There were behavioural and concentration issues among students, as well as major health challenges such as type two diabetes and obesity, which are preventable through a nutritious diet. At that point, I began thinking: what can we do here? How can we flip this situation?

Funnily enough, I happened to know a lot about commercial hydroponic growing. The majority of food is actually grown through hydroponic greenhouses, so I set about adapting that technology to suit the needs of remote schools.

Fast forward to many years later, the Food Ladder systems we now install in schools are about 25 square metres in size and produce food for students and their communities. That was the founding story of Food Ladder, which I co-founded with Alex Shead 13 years ago.

As a co-founder and CEO of Food Ladder, can you please share more about your work and how you are operating alongside these schools and local communities?

It’s important to us that we don’t make life harder for teachers and communities. We don’t want to give them something else to do, it’s about making life better and simpler. As with all wicked issues, the solution has to be sufficiently simple so it makes sense to multiple stakeholders in the community. That’s the only way you can create sustainable, ongoing impact.

We’re proud of the fact that the legacy of our Food Ladder systems is such that no school has ever fallen off the program. Every Food Ladder that has been installed is still operational.

Of course, a lot has changed in the 13 years since we started Food Ladder. Climate change has worsened, food security has become a much more urgent issue, and new technologies like AI and machine learning have emerged. At Food Ladder, we’ve made the conscious decision to adopt these technologies, but always in a way that makes life simpler for teachers.

One example is our customised Food Ladder AI lesson planner, which allows teachers to develop lessons and whole units of learning. This is normally a huge amount of work for teachers, but our system generates curriculum-aligned resources that can be tailored for any subject and any year group. The lessons are designed to be delivered inside the Food Ladder itself. While it’s a greenhouse and a food security solution, it is also an interactive, nourishing classroom.

Over more than a decade of doing this work, we’ve seen that kids who are learning through doing, in a beautiful learning environment that isn’t behind a desk, retain information more effectively. They also demonstrate significant improvements in literacy and numeracy at rates much higher than in traditional classroom settings.

We’ve also had incredible success with school attendance. For example, one school in Wellington, a low socioeconomic community, reported attendance increasing from 30% to 90% as a direct result of the Food Ladder program.

That’s a huge outcome because it’s not just about engagement and education, the kids are also growing their own food, eating more fruit and vegetables, and taking that food home to their families. It’s a holistic and multi-pronged approach to social change.

You’re an AMP Foundation Tomorrow Maker and you're currently getting support to develop and grow Food Ladder. What have been your reflections and learnings from the support to date?

I want to stress my deep gratitude to the AMP Foundation Tomorrow Makers program, and to Nicola, Lucy, and yourself Tom, for the work you are doing.

The reality is that this work is difficult. There’s a reason why these problems exist in the first place, it’s because they are incredibly hard to solve. What’s wonderful about this program is it recognises the challenges and the stress that founders like myself, and the incredible cohort of Tomorrow Makers I have the privilege of working alongside, face on top of the day-to-day challenges of running a business, let alone one trying to solve a problem that hasn’t been solved before.

In terms of the support, I’d like to highlight the value of having time carved out to be in a cohort with people who are walking the same road. What’s the point of making the same mistakes as somebody else in the past when you can share experiences and learn from one another? Having that kind of support and inspiration from other incredible changemakers is invaluable.

It’s beautiful to be going through this process as we scale within the ecosystem of the AMP Foundation Tomorrow Makers program. The learnings are constantly evolving. Here we are, a number of months in, and throughout this year together it has been formative as we all scale our organisations side by side.

What tips, insights, or advice would you give to other purpose-driven organisations in their startup or scale-up journey?

It’s important to acknowledge that this is a competitive space, just like any other business landscape. I wholeheartedly believe we shouldn’t be creating unnecessary replication. It’s vital for organisations to collaborate.

If you’re looking to start something new, you need to be very clear about where you are adding value and how what you’re bringing to the market of social change is different from what already exists. Founders starting a social enterprise need to appreciate their unique value proposition and the insights they hold that may not have been galvanised by existing organisations. If there’s a genuine point of difference, and you can see a clear impact lens through which your work can make a difference in the world, that’s fantastic.

My advice is to find like-minded people to go on the journey with you. It has been a wonderful privilege of mine to work with my co-founder, Alex Shead, since the inception of Food Ladder. Throughout the organisation’s journey, we’ve had brilliant board members and committed on-the-ground partners.

Building an ecosystem of support is essential if you want to succeed in this space. I would say: pick your people carefully, and understand why what you are doing is different from what might already be out there in the not-for-profit or social enterprise world.

What are the traits you’ve consistently seen in impact-led leaders and entrepreneurs that you believe are the most crucial to their success?

Building on what I just said, I think you need to be very honest with yourself about the opportunities in the market, or the lack thereof. If you do see a window where you can make a difference, that’s the first step.

The second critical trait is grit. Starting any business is never straightforward, and in the impact-led space it’s often even more complex. Having grittiness is essential, as is appreciating that progress will probably take longer than you expect in the beginning. This has to be something you really want. In my experience, the grittiest leaders are consistently the most successful.

Another important trait is being a good listener and understanding the context in which you are operating. I would also add that creativity is important, because the landscape is always shifting: funding priorities change, the climate shifts, governments change. Being able to pivot and remain agile while staying clear about the end goal is critical.

It’s definitely not a straight line in the work of impact enterprise.

What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across recently creating a positive change?

I’d love to give a shout out to my dear friend Mandy Richards, who is the founder of an organisation called Global Sisters. Mandy and I started our organisations around a similar time, and she has focused on supporting women who are facing significant financial challenges.

She has spearheaded a number of incredible initiatives through Global Sisters, from providing grants to help women launch their own social enterprises, through to most recently launching Little Greenhouses for Her, a housing solution for women and single mothers experiencing homelessness.

In her own words, every time she has tried to address economic disadvantage for women, it so often comes back to housing. I think that aligns closely with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It’s similar to what we see at Food Ladder: you can’t be successful unless you are well fed, and you can’t be successful unless you have a roof over your head. Those are the two essential foundations.

I’d encourage people to take a look at the incredible work Mandy and her team are doing now.

To finish off, what books or resources would you recommend to our audience?

It’s been a while since I read The Power of Unreasonable People, but I first came across it about 15 years ago and it was definitely formative in tipping me into this work and this space.

I also think Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point is a great read, and I’d give a big shout out for that too.