Jake Harriman’s Nuru International Seeks to End Extreme Poverty

Not exactly about local food either, but a local man is doing something to feed the world. I had the privilege of writing about him.


By CYNTHIA McCLOUD
For The State Journal

Jake Harriman turned in his sword for a plowshare.

The 36-year-old Preston County native and former Marine saw that he could fight terrorism more effectively if he battled one of its chief causes: Extreme poverty.

While fighting in Iraq, he saw terrorists exploit poor people to do their bidding.

He left the service, where he was a decorated U.S. Marine Corps Recon Platoon Commander in the Iraq War, and enrolled at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 2008 with a goal to build an organization that would address terrorism by ending extreme poverty. Armed with an MBA in nonprofit management and backed by classmates, professors and Silicon Valley investors, he co-founded the nonprofit Nuru International. He serves as its CEO, spending much of his time working the program in Kenya.

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