Dr Billy Tang, founder of social enterprise PWD Smart Farmability, received the honour for his achievement and contribution to the marginalised society.
Dr Billy Tang is a great example of not letting adversity define him nor his abilities.
After a car accident in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, left him paralysed from the waist down six years ago, he threw his focus into urban farming, developing a model to help poor and marginalised communities get access to fresh, nutritious food sustainably.
The 55-year-old agriculturist and researcher set up a social enterprise called PWD Smart FarmAbility and, last year, introduced the Hope Box Project, which offers organic vegetable terrariums for adoption or sale in aid of various beneficiaries.
The terrariums, which can self-regenerate for at least three months and up to a year without fertilisers, act as a form of fresh food bank conveniently located where the recipients live.
NOW Magazine
A Toronto ice cream shop that’s for the dogs
Scarborough’s Samantha Mok turned her design school project into the online canine dessert business, In Dogs We Trust By Kelsey Adams
Walter chows down on ice cream made from a goat’s milk base.
Samantha Mok has 300 cups of ice cream in her freezer. It’s full to the brim with dragon fruit, strawberries and cream, mango passionfruit and more.
But these delectable flavours aren’t for human consumption.
Mok’s pup cups are one of the most popular items at In Dogs We Trust, her online, small-batch gourmet dog treat business. She makes the cups with a goat’s milk base, which has less fat content than dairy so it’s easier on a dog’s digestive system. All of the products are made from all-natural ingredients you can find at any grocery store, and that’s the point. Her motto is, “If I wouldn’t eat it, I’m not going to feed it to Walter.”
PUPPY LOVE: Ice cream for dogs a winner for Toronto biz torontosun.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from torontosun.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Founded by Samantha Mok, the business itself originally started off as part of her design school thesis project. She created branding for an (at the time) fictional business named In Dogs We Trust. From there, everything began to spiral into something wonderful. I submitted it to a couple design projects and won four or five national awards for it which led to some sponsorship money, Mok told blogTO. We had so many dog treats for the project I was begging people to take them off my hands.
Sitting at home with hundreds of dog treats, an already designed business concept idea, sponsorship money, and plenty of free time during the pandemic, Mok decided to bring her school project to life and make it a real company.