After years of significant land loss for individuals, organizations and communities, access to affordable and productive farmland of any size is one of the greatest challenges in re-designing food systems that ensure access to food for all, throughout the year.
As a sustainability strategy for our community food distribution program, we are learning how to grow 70-90% of the food we share with food insecure households on a monthly basis, on leased farmland.
We saw an opportunity to continue helping our neighbors with food through leasing both small and large chunks of land from local owners, and using it to grow food for our food pantry.
Since we planted our first garden patch in 2016, our food pantry has already made a tremendous impact on the local food movement in rural Jinja villages. Every week, Emma works with Jacob and Simon to fulfill the growing demand for freshly harvest food grains in our communities of service. Growing our own food cuts down on the costs transporting grain from other regions of the country, ensures the integrity of the food we distribute, and our locally grown grain foods can be found in the kitchen food baskets, cooking pots and dining mats of our neighbors across several neighborhoods.
In addition to improving access to freshly harvested grain foods in the communities we serve, we are also learning to act as a resource for other nonprofits with a similar mission of alleviating hunger among the children, pregnant women, the elderly and sick in their communities in their communities.
A shared meal produced through shared toil is a powerful tool for engaging in hope and change.
Soon enough we will share with you what we and our sister organizations are growing, and what else we should be growing to feed our communities in need.