17-year-old The Earth Prize Winners Hailey Yap and Yume Yorita partner with Philippine Red Cross to provide food for typhoon relief

• 17-year-old Hailey Yap and Yume Yorita are the founders of Kultibado
• This award-winning food waste platform saves ‘ugly’ and surplus produce by connecting farmers directly with consumers
• Kultibado was developed in The Earth Prize 2025 & won for Oceania & Southeast Asia
• Recent typhoons in the Philippines caused widespread damage and displacement
• Kultibado partnered with NGOs to deliver food to evacuees in need

Hailey Yap and Yume Yorita, Winners of The Earth Prize 2025, have delivered over 650kg of food for disaster relief, in partnership with the Philippine Red Cross and other NGOs. Their award-winning platform Kultibado, which rescues “ugly” and surplus (yet fresh and nutritious) produce from landfill, quickly switched from providing restaurants and consumers to taking part in local relief efforts.

Recently the Philippines was hit with a relentless series of extreme weather events, including typhoons Wiphia (known in the Philippines as Crising), Francisco (aka Dante), Co-May (aka Emong), and the southern monsoon Habagat. This series of severe weather events caused widespread flooding and landslides, resulting in significant housing and agricultural damage, evacuations, injury and fatalities, in total affecting millions of people.

Thanks to Hailey and Yume’s quick thinking under pressure and Kultibado’s already established systems, evacuees received urgently-needed produce at 10% below the market price. Furthermore, farmers earned more by selling produce that would otherwise be discarded, and costs were reduced for the Philippine Red Cross. 

Yume and Hailey’s pioneering web app, Kultibado, aims to redefine food systems in the Philippines and beyond. Today in the Philippines around 30% of agricultural produce is currently discarded for cosmetic reasons, despite being perfectly fresh and nutritious, and an additional 30% is wasted due to supply chain efficiencies. Kultibado’s platform removes the middleman and allows farmers to sell directly to businesses and consumers. As a result, farmers earn fairer prices while offering produce up to 72% cheaper. 

Hailey and Yume developed Kultibado as part of The Earth Prize, being crowned Regional Winners for Oceania & Southeast Asia in 2025. The Earth Prize is the world’s largest environmental competition and ideas incubator for 13–19-year-olds, empowering young people to tackle climate challenges with mentorship, learning resources, and shared $100,000 in funding. Since 2021, it has reached nearly 15,000 students across 160 countries, awarding over $500,000 to support real-world solutions. Each year, seven Regional Winners are selected by an expert jury, before a global public vote determines the Global Winner. Alumni have been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Huffpost and more.

Since taking part in The Earth Prize 2025, Hailey and Yume have expanded their project through key partnerships and real-world tests. They have connected a network of 100+ farmers to 30+ restaurants via the Tasteless Food Group (Beyond Concepts), and helped fund a 10,000KG shared storehouse for them to pool their resources together. Most recently, it was announced that two of the restaurants they currently supply, ‘The Local’ and ‘The Underbelly’, were recently awarded Michelin Bib Gourmand status, which recognises restaurants that serve high-quality three-course meals at a reasonable price. The duo have also hosted online financial literacy workshops for farmers, and represented the Philippines at the Online Edition of the 12th International Youth Conference (IYC12) in New York City, held during the UN’s 80th Anniversary High-Level Week (UNGA80). 

“We’re so grateful for the prize. Not only receiving the money, it also gave us credibility, as more stakeholders trusted us with the Earth Prize's backing. We were linked up with mentors, who helped overcome challenges, and beyond that we met other winners, with whom we were able to work together on additional climate agritech solutions,” explained Hailey Yap.

Peter McGarry, founder of The Earth Foundation, commented: “Hailey and Yume’s work with Kultibado is a powerful reminder of what happens when young people are given the tools and confidence to act on their ideas. They’ve taken the spirit of The Earth Prize and turned it into tangible impact for their communities - proof that innovation and hope can thrive even in the face of our biggest environmental challenges.”

Registrations for The Earth Prize 2026 are open until 10th January 2026, and submissions close on 31st January 2026. Students are encouraged to register as soon as possible to be matched with a mentor, start work on their project and join The Earth Prize community. Visit www.theearthprize.org to get started.

Founded by 17-year-olds Hailey Yap and Yume Yorita, Kultibado is an award-winning food sustainability platform that rescues “ugly” and surplus produce from landfill by connecting farmers directly with consumers and businesses. The initiative, developed through The Earth Prize 2025, empowers Filipino farmers to earn fairer prices while reducing food waste and providing affordable fresh produce to communities in need.

Find out more at: https://kultibado.com/

Follow on Instagram: @kultibado