Convoy of Hope has been feeding families for 25 years, but our mission has never just been about filling stomachs — it’s been about transforming communities.
When we started our Children’s Feeding program, we knew it couldn’t stop there. Convoy wanted to move beyond the meal, toward sustainability. That’s how our Agriculture program began.
Dr. Jason Streubel, affectionately known as Dr. Dirt, joined our team in 2011 and began transforming the way we looked at agriculture in our international work.
Agriculture touches every aspect of existence.
What started as one farmer in Haiti with a garden behind his house has now transformed into a co-op with hundreds of farmers, agriculture education in schools, and a training program that helps pastors pass agricultural skills to their congregations.
“Agriculture helps us tap into families as a whole,” says Convoy of Hope’s Senior Director of Global Program, Kevin Rose.
Now we have a whole team of agriculture experts working to develop new and lasting ways to break the cycle of poverty in communities around the world. Since implementing the Agriculture program, more than 23,000 people have received some form of agriculture education through Convoy of Hope in eight countries.
As this program expands, it’s interacting with several other initiatives. After Cyclone Idai decimated parts of southeast Africa, thousands of families found their homes and their crops destroyed. While our team distributed relief supplies to meet immediate needs, one of our Disaster Services team members and agriculture experts distributed fast-growing corn seed. This helped families to quickly get back on their feet after the disaster.
Our agricultural efforts have also found their way stateside in conjunction with Community Events. Not only does Convoy hand out Gardens in a Bag at our events — packs that offer working families seeds and instructions to create home gardens — but our team is working with partners in Flint, Michigan, to build community gardens.
Food security is crucial for families around the world. When we help communities increase their food security, it transforms the lives of countless people, lifting them out of dependency. You can learn more about our Agriculture program here.
