Hugh Molotsi, who believes that technology should improve people’s lives, is the founder of Ujama, a messaging platform connecting communities, and Soko, a farmers market app. His goal is to support local farmers and small businesses, while providing fresh and healthy produce to everyone, including low-income families.
Molotsi started Ujama by asking himself, “What can I build that will help the most people, regardless of their income or class status?” Initially, he created an app that helped parents connect with each other for mutual aid in childcare and transportation. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he pivoted to building Soko, a free app that helps people find nearby farmers markets and engage with vendors remotely or in-person while paying securely electronically.
Soko’s newest feature is the ability to process Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments, which is important as only a small portion of the over $100 billion spent on SNAP is used at farmers markets. Processing SNAP payments is more efficient using Soko, and more local farmers and small businesses can thrive while making fresh and healthy food available to more people.
Molotsi believes that farmers markets are an efficient and effective solution for food deserts, which are areas where getting quality, nutritious produce is challenging or almost impossible, especially for low-income families. The challenge of launching new farmers markets is the “cold start” problem. However, Soko can mitigate this problem. By building a critical mass in their app community, managing SNAP payments, and communicating with vendors and consumers, Soko hopes to bring more farmers markets to food deserts across the country.
To support farmers markets, Molotsi suggests that businesses get the word out, offer locations for new markets, and promote upcoming farmers market dates to their customers.
In the next few years, Soko plans to continue building its app community, allowing customers to communicate with market managers and individual farmers and vendors while making fresh, healthful food more available to all.
