Food Security United States Project #61074

Plant Food Trees for Climate and Hunger

by A Well-Fed World

Project Report | Jan 3, 2025
Native Nut Trees: Sustainability Superheroes

By Ashley Capps | Project Leader

We're so grateful to supporters of our Food Trees for Climate & Hunger Fund. As we move into a new year, we thought you might like to know some of the many amazing benefits of food trees for people, animals and the planet. In today's dispatch, we shine a spotlight on native nut trees!

Native nut trees are sustainability superheroes. Their deep root systems actively seek out nutrients and water, making them less vulnerable to drought and less needful of irrigation; many native nut trees easily thrive on nothing but rain! Tree roots also hold dirt in place, reducing erosion, and prevent fertilizers from washing off and polluting waterways.

Because nuts are high in protein, they are also an excellent meat and dairy alternative, while using only a small fraction of the amount of land. This, along with their carbon sequestration and provision of much-needed habitat for wildlife, means nut trees (and many other food trees) uniquely address the triple crises of global hunger, climate change, and biodiversity loss.

Climate scientists have urged large-scale tree planting and protection of intact forests as crucial to mitigate global warming, while the UN has warned we will need to produce 70% more food by 2050 without using any more land. Protecting forests and planting trees at this scale will only be possible through major reductions in animal-food-related land use; animal farming uses a staggering 80% of all agricultural land while producing only 18% of global calories, and is the single greatest driver of deforestation. Habitat loss due to clearing land for grazing and animal feed crops is also recognized as the number one driver of wildlife species extinction.

Planting native nut trees and other food trees meaningfully mitigates both climate change and biodiversity loss while improving human health and global food security, and sparing animals. Nut trees also provide food and income while reducing widespread deforestation driven by animal agriculture. Our Food Trees for Climate & Hunger Fund supports food tree and food forest plantings around the world, including communities in Peru, Brazil, Haiti, Barbados, Kenya and the U.S. Projects have included reforestation with native fruit and nut trees in deforested regions of the Amazon rainforest, and fruit and nut trees for school food forests in more than 35 schools across Kenya.

Thank you so much for partnering with us in our mission to help build a world that is healthy, well-fed, and kind...all at the same time.

With gratitude,

Your friends at A Well-Fed World

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Sep 5, 2024
Breadfruit Trees Empowering Women

By Ashley Capps | Project Leader

In this quarter's food tree partner spotlight, we are pleased to highlight the work of Trees That Feed (TTF). Trees That Feed donates food trees to nurseries, farmers, families and individuals in underresourced communities to help improve their food security and nutrition, and, in many cases, generate income. They most commonly distribute breadfruit trees, but have provided many other kinds of food-bearing trees, including mango, avocado, cashew, fig, guava, pomegranate and more.

According to scientists, more than 80% of the 925 million people suffering from hunger and food insecurity live in an area where the highly nutritious breadfruit tree can be grown. A single breadfruit tree can feed a family of 4 for more than 50 years. In addition to being eaten raw, breadfruit can be baked, boiled, fried, roasted and steamed; it can even be candied and pickled. The fruit can be shredded, dried or easily processed into flour.

Trees That Feed has provided breadfruit trees to farmers and families in Haiti for many years. Now they've taken that a step further with their Women's Empowerment Program, which is providing women in Haiti with training and supplies to create flour and baked goods from the breadfruit trees that are planted in their communities. TTF recently shared: "After we give the women a jumpstart of breadfruit products, along with sales and savings training, most of them build their own businesses as vendors of breadfruit biscuits (konparets) or bread. Some even start their own bakeries. One participant commented (as translated from Haitian Creole), 'The benefits come to you fast and suddenly you have choices!' Another said, 'My advice for the program is that we find the possibility to help a lot more communities find the riches that we have discovered here.'"

This is just one of the impactful food tree projects you help us support when you give to our Food Trees for Climate and Hunger Fund. We hope you feel inspired by this and the many other amazing plant-based feeding projects and partnerships our Plants-4-Hunger program makes possible thanks to the generosity of donors like you.

Thank you so much for joining us in our work to create a world that is healthy, well-fed, and kind...all at the same time.

Warmly,

Ashley Capps

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May 8, 2024
School Food Forests in Kenya

By Ashley Capps | Project Leader

A Well-Fed World’s Plants-4-Hunger program funds plant-based feeding, farming and disaster relief food aid projects around the world that feed more people using far less land, water, and energy, while protecting animals, ecosystems, and the climate. Our dedicated Food Trees for Climate and Hunger Fund, which you generously support, is a crucial project of Plants-4-Hunger.

Food trees uniquely address the triple crises of global hunger, climate change, and biodiversity loss by providing food and income, carbon sequestration, and wildlife habitat, while reducing deforestation, which, globally, is overwhelmingly driven by animal-based food production.The UN says conserving forests and planting more trees could provide nearly one third of urgent climate mitigation needed in the next ten years, while forest-based food systems “are associated with increased fruit and vegetable consumption and increased dietary diversity,” leading to improved nutrition and health outcomes.

One of the standout tree planting projects our Food Tree Fund supports is Green Generation Initiative (GGI) in Kenya. Founded in 2016 by the young Kenyan environmentalist Elizabeth Wathuti, Green Generation Initiative is a non-profit, youth-led organization creating a generation of ecologically conscious individuals by educating and empowering children and communities to love nature through experiential learning and on-the-ground, nature-based solutions.

GGI runs programs focused on food forest planting and care to help schools in Kenya simultaneously instill environmental values in students, while improving food security and nutrition and proactively addressing the climate crisis. Since its inception, GGI has planted more than 30,000 native fruit trees in more than 35 schools across Kenya.

With your continued support, we can keep empowering the incredible work of Green Generation Initiative and other groups who are planting trees to feed people, shelter animals, and cool the climate. Thank you for supporting our vision for a world that is healthy, well-fed, and kind...all at the same time.

Yours for more food, and less harm—

A Well-Fed World

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