We equip impoverished farmers and families with the skills, tools and seeds to produce life-sustaining crops through the agricultural work we conduct throughout the world. Each year, tens of thousands of meals are harvested for our children’s feeding work and income is generated for farmers and their families so children are fed and cared for.
Jason Streubel, Ph.D.
Director of Agriculture
Jason Streubel A.K.A. “Dr. Dirt” joined our team in 2011. He holds a Ph.D. in Soil Science from Washington State University. He has built numerous agriculture projects customized to the needs in the areas we serve. Streubel believes that ending poverty depends heavily on food security and locally sustainable agriculture solutions.
Locally Grown Meals
Our Agriculture work is not just about helping impoverished farmers farm better, it’s also about feeding children. Take Haiti for example. Since Summer 2011, 2,600 individual farmers have been trained in best management practices for culturally relevant agriculture increasing yields by 300 percent. Last year, that work culminated in 1,263,489 meals for our Children’s Feed Program that were locally grown in Haiti from farmers we have worked with and trained.
Food security is crucial for communities and families around the world. When we help farmers increase their communities’ and families’ food security we can play a part in transforming the lives of countless people by lifting them out of dependence on others.
Our Agricultural Initiative was being piloted in Haiti where farmers lost the knowledge of adequate farming after years of food aid being shipped into the country. After being trained in agronomy, farmers in the program are now growing their own crops that are producing food that supplies their families and helps sustain our children’s feeding efforts in Haiti.
As part of our Agricultural Initiative we’re also educating schools, churches and orphanages in countries like the Philippines and the Dominican Republic, how to start and maintain urban gardens.
