RIMA KOHLI
Founder and Executive Director
Rima founded Organic Quotient to disrupt traditional frameworks of the food and nutrition ecosystem. In 2005, as special assistant to the City of New York’s Deputy Health Commissioner, she participated in the dialogue of several emerging policies; Type 2 diabetes, Obesity, trans fat; she learnt how central diet is to managing the condition. Spinning off of IQ and EQ, she came up with the Organic Quotient: why aren’t we talking about OQ and diet that sustains people and planet? Subsequently, she spent a few years working in Afghanistan with the National Democratic Institute. Foreign governments relied heavily on us to gain understanding of ground-level politics and opinions. Within highly restrictive movements and tight security protocols, she set up the Kabul Cooking Club. The initiative became popular within diplomatic circles and the NGO community which made work easier in the long run. Food is culture, food is personal, food is comfort and food is nourishment. Growing up in India, diet and food was central to her existence.
“To me it was natural that the point of departure begins with the woman of the household. She is the source. Today as a mother to my 3 year old child I could not be more certain. From the Roman, Greek and Egyptian times, healers were women. They tapped into their innate wisdom of the earth, invoked the natural nourisher within and used natural roots, spices, plants, flowers and herbs to bring people back into balance. I am passionate that our planet has everything we need as humans to survive and if we nourish it, it will nourish us back. We are living through a tipping point of existential overwhelm and food as a medium crystallises this. A woman armed with love and ancestral wisdom is an unstoppable force.” Rima holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy (Health & Education) from Johns Hopkins University, is a certified yoga teacher for children and a lifestyle medicine coach.