The women behind Two Chicks launch Empowerment Fund

The two female entrepreneurs behind the UK’s first and leading pre-separated liquid egg-white brand have established the Two Chicks Empowerment Fund. The fund will be financed by 10% of Two Chicks’ products’ profits, and its purpose is to inspire girls and young women through empowerment.

As two successful business women who have benefited from the state educational system themselves, Alla Ouvarova and Anna Richey were clear on their desire to help young female students achieve their potential.

Anna met Alla a few years before the last recession of 2008/9 and together they founded Two Chicks just before it hit. Undaunted by the financial crisis, they grew their business throughout it and beyond. They know first-hand the hurdles a fledgling entrepreneur faces, and the extra challenges for women in particular.

Two Chicks brings innovative, convenient, healthier products to market that the women behind the brand wanted themselves, but couldn’t find. Alla and Anna have an intuitive understanding of modern lifestyles, and the company ethos focuses on Health, Innovation, Convenience and Enjoyment, underpinned by Integrity and a sense of Social Responsibility. They possess entrepreneurial flair and work hard to break new ground; in a sector dominated by larger players, their small-company values and strong branding have enabled them to truly stand out.

Having built Two Chicks into the enterprise it is today, and not content with sitting on their laurels, they have wanted for some time to give something back. This past year, with all its challenges and pauses for thought, brought clear focus to their endeavour.

“It has always been a long-standing ambition of ours to align ourselves with women’s causes. Our Two Chicks Empowerment Fund has been set up to support the personal, social and emotional wellbeing of girls and young women who could benefit from it. The fund will enable initiatives and opportunities which enhance wellbeing, skills and career pathways.” states Anna.

“It’s our customers that have made the Empowerment Fund possible. We want them to know that every time they buy a carton of Two Chicks they are making a contribution towards positive outcomes,” Alla adds. “We are donating 10% of our profits to the fund and are highlighting the cause on our cartons.”

Anna continues: “We’ve so far donated funds to two inner-city girls’ secondary schools, and the school leaders we are working with have been really inspiring. They have created plans, which amongst other things support mental health, promote a love of reading, and provide their students with enriching activities.”

Says Alla “Having achieved these results already, we are determined to grow the reach of the fund so it empowers even more young people.”

One of the first schools to participate is Parliament Hill School, which has used the fund in a number of creative ways to stimulate their pupils. Head Teacher, Sarah Creasey, states “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Two Chicks whose funding and support brings exciting opportunities as we continue to develop our enrichment and careers provision for girls. The aim of their generous Empowerment Fund for girls dovetails perfectly with Parliament Hill’s feminist mission and we look forward to a close collaboration which will bring many benefits for our students.”

*Parliament Hill’s plan to use the funds they have received so far is attached, and shows the extensive ways the Two Chicks Empowerment Fund is making a positive impact.

Another is Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School, the establishment that inspired Michelle Obama’s focus on education when she was US First Lady, following a visit there in 2009; at the time, the school had 900 refugee pupils in a student population where 55 languages were spoken. In her memoir, Becoming, Obama recalls: “Looking at the girls, I just began to talk, explaining that though I had come from far away … I was more like them than they knew.”

Anna and Alla have been working closely with the school’s Careers Education Leader, Razziya Siddique, to identify how best they could support their students, and have funded the purchase of 50 laptops and 1000 copies of The Gratitude Journal, which will help students develop skills in dealing with challenging situations they may face now and beyond school, and provides guidance on gratitude techniques. She states “Overall, the Empowerment Fund contributes to raising aspirations, enhancing students’ resilience and helps the school to break down barriers to social mobility.”

Since things have opened up, Anna and Alla were able to visit EGA (pic above of them with Careers Education Leader outside the school) where they remotely observed a PSHE lesson via screen where students used the gratitude journals paid for by the fund. They also had a discussion with the Head Teacher and an Assistant Head Teacher who were full of thanks from staff and pupils re the fund, and they’ve pledged to donate further, having seen such a positive response.

Indeed, they are proud of their ability to make a quick turnaround on any serious request within a matter of days, and to work with the schools to tailor a bespoke approach, providing it fits in with the aims of the fund. Two Chicks take a collaborative approach with all institutions that work with them, to best identify and respond to their needs, and to ensure a consistent contribution to empowering outcomes. Two Chicks are open to partnerships matching their own funding to help the support of the fund go further.