Today is International Women’s Day, when we celebrate all the women who make the world a better place.
At Food 4 Farmers, we’ve celebrated women every day since 2011. We’re a women-founded and led organization. The majority of our Board members are women, and three of the six cooperatives we work with are led by women.
All over the world, women farm, pick, process, roast, and sell coffee. Our organization aims to make sure everyone in coffee has access to healthy food and thriving livelihoods. And women are leading the way.
We focus on education, professional skills training, and connecting communities with the resources they need to grow healthy organic food. We also provide local economic opportunities for thousands of families who have little choice about how they earn their living and what they eat. Ultimately, we aim to ensure that coffee-growing communities can manage their own food security, independent of outside philanthropic support or influence.
To accomplish this ambitious goal, we partner with women: coffee producers, their family members, and coffee cooperative staff and leadership. Last year, women represented over 80% of participants in our food security programs, and they have proven to be powerful connectors and transformational forces for change.
Beyond buying food and cooking for their own families, women have become leaders in connecting more people in their communities with access to healthy food.
Women are developing new businesses, strong community food systems, and better nutrition.
They’re starting up on-farm businesses selling organic produce locally through farmers markets.
They’re supplementing their coffee income with cacao, beekeeping, annatto, and chickens.
They’re working as community food security promoters, visiting farms and helping coffee-farming families establish thriving home gardens.
They’re supporting thousands of students at area schools, teaching kids to grow and prepare organic fruits and vegetables at new school gardens — for healthy daily snacks at school, and knowledge about better nutrition at home.
Every day, we see what women do when they have the power to connect their ideas, energies, and creativity with the resources they need. They use their power to help others, and change the world for the better.
Today we invite you to support the women who grow the coffee you love. Help them also grow healthy food for their families and communities. Make a special donation to our Women Lead campaign here.
Happy International Women’s Day!
