Hormel Foods partners with World Food Prize to host Project SPAMMY^® intern

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Project SPAMMY

June 23, 2017

For the fourth year, Hormel Foods has partnered with the World Food Prize Borlaug-Ruan International Internship Program to host a summer intern with the Project SPAMMY^® program in Guatemala.

Hormel Foods has now hosted four interns since 2014, and this year’s intern, Alyssa Dougherty, is spending eight weeks working with the program based in Panajachel, Guatemala City and Antigua.

“This internship program is a unique opportunity for Hormel Foods to connect with students focused on global food and nutrition, and allows us to showcase the Project SPAMMY^® program to future leaders in this space,” said Melissa Bonorden, senior product development scientist, R&D (Austin, Minn.).

Dougherty is from Epworth, Iowa, and is a junior at Iowa State University in Ames studying dietetics. Her future plan is to have a career where she can help with global malnutrition. She learned about World Food Prize’s Borlaug-Ruan International Internship Program through her involvement with the Iowa Youth Institute.

For Dougherty’s internship, she is partnering with Guatemalan organization CeSSIAM to research body composition and whey protein acceptability. During the internship, she is participating in a Project SPAMMY^® employee engagement trip with volunteers from Hormel Foods.

“The World Food Prize goes above and beyond when it comes to inspiring the next generation of innovators, scientists, and leaders. When I found out I was going to Guatemala, it felt like everything was falling into place and my mouth dropped as I realized how perfectly the internship aligned with my career interests,” Dougherty said on her blog. “Through these experiences, my appreciation and outlook on life has changed tremendously.”

Looking forward to the rest of the internship, Dougherty is most excited to continue to meet new people and work on impactful projects.

Over the past 19 years, the Word Food Prize has sent more than 270 students on Borlaug-Ruan International Internships at top agricultural research centers and institutions around the world. Dougherty is one of the twenty-four students selected to gain hands-on experience and work with world-renowned scientists and policymakers in this year’s program.

Learn more about Alyssa’s journey on her blog.