By Ashley Capps | Project Leader
With your generous support, our Plants-4-Hunger program funds a variety of innovative, highly effective hunger relief projects including free school meal programs in developing countries; food tree and food forest plantings; school and community vegetable gardens; bean and vegetable seed distribution; plant-based food pantries, community fridges and meal shares; disaster relief food aid; and soy processing equipment for rural women’s microenterprise.
From time to time we’d like to share more in-depth details about some of these exciting initiatives, with today’s project spotlight being soy microbusinesses to empower women.
The majority of the world's poor are women; some 2.4 billion women are not given equal economic opportunity and 178 countries uphold legal barriers that prevent their full economic participation. Gender inequality costs women in developing countries an estimated $9 trillion a year, a sum which would vastly improve their wellbeing, their families' and communities', and boost the global economy as a whole.
The soy microbusiness model has helped lift many women and their families out of poverty while improving nutrition and food security in their communities. Through our partners Malnutrition Matters working in Africa, the Americas, and Asia, we support the provision of soy processing equipment (SoyKits) and training to women and women’s cooperatives in communities with high rates of malnutrition and poverty. The SoyKits and training help individual women and women’s co-ops build a platform to generate sustained income by processing soybeans into soymilk, as well as value-added products such as tofu, yogurt, spreads, puddings, and okara meal for breads and other baked goods.
In Guatemala, we also support our partners Plenty International's Soy Nutrition Program, which distributes soymilk and soyfoods to more than 300 children and families who live in and around the Guatemala City Landfill. They also provide equipment and technical support to Mayan women's cooperatives to improve their sales of low cost, nutritious non-GMO soy products.
Case studies and monitoring of these soy microbusiness projects consistently show improved income, nutrition and wellbeing for women, their families, and communities, as well as the creation of new jobs. For more details and photos, feel free to visit our dedicated project page for soy microbusinesses.
As ever, thank you for partnering with us to build a world that is healthy, well-fed and kind…all at the same time.
Warmly,
Ashley Capps
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