Reflections, Perspectives, and Notes from the Field
The Seeds for a Future Blog
What is Food Security, and What are the 5 A’s?
We’ve noticed something. The term ‘food security’ keeps showing up in new contexts, often meaning something a little different each time. You’ve probably seen this too; oftentimes food security is a blanket word for hunger. Food security isn’t only about having food on the table. It’s about making sure that families and communities can reliably…
Read More Mud, Mam, and Marigolds: Two Weeks of Quiet Persistence in the Field
By Moises P. | Program and Data Manager Food security doesn’t grow in perfect conditions. During the first two weeks of June, it grew through heavy rains, muddy roads, language barriers, and the steady determination of families and field staff working together across rural Guatemala. What does resilience look like in a small farming community…
Read More The Ingredients for Change Were Already Present
By Moises P. | Program and Data Manager From fish tanks turned into nurseries to kitchen spices that defeat crop plagues, small-scale farmers in Guatemala are reclaiming food sovereignty, one garden at a time. What does real change look like in a small farming community? Often, it looks like someone walking a hundred meters to…
Read More “Pass the Plate, Improve Community Health!”
From mountainsides to lakeshores across Guatemala, families in the Seeds for a Future program are doing something quietly radical: growing their own food, on their own terms. In backyards and borrowed spaces, in repurposed fish tanks and stacked recycled tires, families are finding creative ways to nourish themselves and their communities. A woman in Montecristo…
Read More When Intuition Meets Crisis with a Proven Solution
In the volcano-side community of Chocolá, Guatemala, something began to disintegrate one family’s mushroom harvest, before something remarkable happened. As many program members cultivate mushrooms as a source of protein and income, a relationship between the health of their crop and the success of their yields begins to form. One mother noticed it first: something…
Read More Why Permaculture Home Gardens Sustainably Overcome Chronic Malnutrition
By Dr. Jim Barlow, Agronomist, Soil Expert, and Seeds for a Future Board Advisor Seeds for a Future is deeply committed to reducing chronic malnutrition among indigenous populations in Guatemala, with a special focus on pregnant women, infants, and young children. While many programs focus on short-term aid to address chronic malnutrition and food insecurity,…
Read More Breaking the Cycle: How Nutrition Education and Home Gardens Transform Lives
By Dr. Jim Barlow, Agronomist, Soil Expert, and Seeds for a Future Board Advisor There’s a chronic nutrition and malnutrition crisis in rural communities across the highlands of Guatemala. At Seeds for a Future, we address malnutrition every day through home gardens, education, mentorship, and practical tools to guide families in building their own sustainable,…
Read More The Four Pillars for Reducing Malnutrition Among Indigenous Families
Rural Nutrition and Health Requires More Than Planting Gardens. Since 2009, Seeds For A Future has been refining and evolving the design of its core Program, which focuses on food security, nutrition education, and increasing incomes. The concept of the Seeds Program began when its Founders, Suzanne and Earl de Berge, were living in a…
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