In Cambodia, almost half the population is iron deficient. The condition cripples the local community and economy. The local diet of rice and fish has very little iron and supplements are too expensive. By cooking with iron pots iron is naturally absorbed into the food but the population use aluminum pots because they are cheaper and lighter to use.

Research showed that cooking with a piece of iron in the pot would give 75% of the daily iron intake but the local people where skeptical of cooking with lumps of metal in their food. We dug deeper into the local culture and found their symbol for health and good luck, a Fish.

By creating the iron in the form of a fish we witnessed a dramatic change in behavior. Within the first 9 months we have seen a 50% decrease in iron deficiency and have helped over 54,800 people.

We knew that cooking with lumps of iron in their pots would work but people where turned off by the idea of cooking with bits of metal. That’s when we dug deeper and found the Cambodian cultural symbol for health and good luck, a fish, and by turning the metal lumps into Fish we witnessed a dramatic change in behavior.

Our team of volunteers went out to rural villages educating and demonstrating the benefits of cooking with the Iron Fish and we managed to turn skeptical families into proud ambassadors.

We are helping the local economy by employing local people to hade make the packaging for each fish and the raw materials are sourced locally and transformed in to each little fish making the project fully sustainable.

The project is ongoing and branching out to other markets faced with similar situations to Cambodia.

The results speak for themselves.

In just 9 months of cooking with the fish every day we have seen a 50% decrease in the incidence of clinical iron deficiency anemia, and an increase in users iron levels.

It has directly helped over 54,800 men, women and children in Cambodia.

The program is fully sustainable as the local community and resources are hired to produce the Lucky Iron Fish and it’s packaging.

It has raised over $1.2 million in donations and funding and has caught the attention of world leaders.

The lucky Iron fish is now a B-Corp certified company committed to leading the fight against iron deficiency around the world.