Sustainable Nutrition for 823+ Families in Peru

For years, families in Sullana, Peru barely eked out a living raising bananas and were not able to provide good, nutritious meals for their children. With our training and intervention, the families’ incomes increased, and the nutritional status of children and parents improved.

The group of farmers is called CAPPO Banana (Cooperativa Agraria de Productores Peruanos Organicos); they were producing bananas and selling them to different companies. Eventually, the group was told that if the farmers could certify their bananas as organic the farmers could double their profits. However, the certification process would cost the farmers $10,000. They couldn’t come up with the money, so came to us. Feed the World/CHOICE Humanitarian has a loan fund called CHOICE Ventures, through which we lent the farmers the money. With the assistance of CHOICE Humanitarian, the farmers’ bananas became certified, enabling the farmers’ income to be doubled. With this increased income, the cooperative repaid the loan within six months. CHOICE Humanitarian also trained the farmers on good cultivation practices, thereby increasing the farmers’ banana yields. The farmers went from being able to export one container of bananas a week to eight containers.

This increase in the quantity and quality of their production changed the lives of the individuals involved. The families benefited greatly because they had more money to buy good-quality, nutritious food. In addition, the families were able to send their children to school. Furthermore, by increasing their production, the farmers are able to hire new laborers to help harvest and package the bananas, thereby creating jobs and enabling the laborers to better feed their families.

Thank you to the donors of Feed the World/CHOICE Humanitarian that make it possible for us to support successful programs like this one that enables families to improve their standard of living.