Make sure no child goes hungry.
Hernández, Erick Josue for CRS
Several times a week, Raul and Lilian have to wake up very early in the morning to pack new orders to be delivered to schools. Schools nearby have become their primary market as a result of the help from CRS’s SEGAMIL and Our Harvest Programs. Today they supply their products to 16 schools and are able to hire around 15 people during harvest time. Here school staff help to unload the products.
Raúl Chanchavac, 29, and Lilian Tzún, 27, have participated in two CRS projects that have put them on the path from subsistence farming to entrepreneurship. Through the USAID-funded project, “SEGAMIL” (which stands for Food Security Focused on the First Thousand Days), the family received seed capital to build a greenhouse and technical training to improve the quality of their produce. More recently, they participated in the “Our Harvest” Local and Regional Food Aid Procurement project (LRP), which is part of a large McGovern-Dole Food for Education program funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). CRS trains farmers like Raúl and Lilian and links them to buyers as part of Guatemala’s National School Feeding Law, which requires schools to buy at least 50% of their food from local producers. CRS has trained more than 50 local producers who now sell their fruits, vegetables and eggs to schools in areas covered by the project. This number of trained farmers will grow with time as the project continues. Supporting local farmers not only builds a strong school meals program, it bolsters local economies and communities.
Communities across the world are experiencing life-threatening levels of hunger and malnutrition on an unprecedented scale. Multiple agencies warn that food aid must be immediately scaled up to prevent loss of life and livelihoods.
➡️Make a donation to help families most vulnerable to hunger access lifesaving food aid and the resources they need to thrive.
By making a donation, you will help ensure:
- Children can study with a full stomach and concentrate on their lessons.
- New mothers and their babies receive the nutrition they need.
- Farmers can implement new agricultural techniques to have successful harvests in the face of climate change.
- Communities affected by a natural disaster or conflict have access to food and clean water.
Make a generous donation today to address immediate food needs and the root causes of hunger. Together, we can ensure healthy and bright futures for millions of our sisters and brothers around the world.