Our story
From one founder's journey to a community movement
How a childhood memory of hunger became a movement for social entrepreneurship on the Eastside.
Founder
Narima Amin's journey
Narima Amin founded GSBP in 2010, shaped by childhood food insecurity and graduating in 1992 — two weeks after her mother’s death awakened her purpose.
For 30+ years she carried three questions: what she needed to thrive and build; what her brother Raymond needed after his 1990 schizophrenia diagnosis; and what is needed for orphans, foster youth, and those with special needs.
Her fisherman brother’s tragic death in 1994 — leaving his 16-year-old son as a skilled jeweler through apprenticeship, now living with disability after a stroke at age 35 in 2012 — led her to Prof. Muhammad Yunus in 1995.
Inspired since then by Yunus’ social business model and 3Zero Club movement, GSBP built Homesteading & Neighbors Feeding Neighbors and is now building Youth Rising youth-led innovation and the JD-led ISEED University ecosystem including World Story Cafe & Digital Museum — now expanding into her private venture RayNari to support GSBP and ISEED and to model for next generation at-risk youth and disability change leaders.
Milestones
Our timeline
2010
GSBP founded
Narima Amin founds Global Social Business Partners in Bellevue, Washington, inspired by her own childhood experience of food insecurity and the Yunus social business model.
2013
Bellevue College Social Business Club
GSBP launches the Bellevue College Social Business Club, igniting a community of young social entrepreneurs that would culminate a successful 2018 Youth Rising Summit for Social Business Innovation.
2014
Interfaith Preschool Garden
GSBP incubates an interfaith preschool garden, bridging faith communities through the shared language of growing food — an early model of values-driven, community-owned agriculture.
2015
African Immigrant Farm Support
GSBP incubated a 2.75-acre farm for an African immigrant farm entrepreneur, championing equitable opportunity and demonstrating that social business can empower immigrant Americans to feed their communities.
2015
tBUG incubated
GSBP incubates the Bellevue Urban Garden (tBUG), one of its signature ventures in urban food growing.
2017
$500K+ In-Kind Infrastructure Secured
GSBP helps a partner organization secure more than $500K in in-kind labor and materials to build aquaponics systems, nine greenhouses, and key farm infrastructure — supporting millions of pounds of rescued food.
2018
Youth Rising Summit
The Bellevue College Social Business Club culminates in the 2018 Youth Rising Summit for Social Business Innovation — a landmark event showcasing youth-led solutions to food insecurity and environmental justice.
2019
tBUG becomes independent
The Bellevue Urban Garden graduates from incubation to stand on its own — a testament to the GSBP model of growing social businesses to full self-sufficiency.
2019
GSBP CEO Home Model
GSBP models a "CEO Home" to demonstrate home-based food growing and processing for neighbors and community, showing that every household can become a hub of local food sovereignty.
2020
COVID-19 response (NFNB)
GSBP launches Neighbors Feeding Neighbors Bellevue (NFNB) to meet surging food needs during the pandemic, sustaining weekly emergency food distribution throughout the crisis.
2024
Coalition for Equitable Development
GSBP joins a coalition of 11 agencies advancing equitable development in East King County, organizing community events with elected leaders, interfaith partners, and grassroots groups focused on food, environment, and belonging.
2028
Wayfinder Hub — Fiscal Sponsor
GSBP is honored to serve as the fiscal sponsor for the Wayfinder Hub, a community-owned space within an affordable housing project slated for 2028 — the next chapter of GSBP's mission to build equitable, self-sufficient communities.