Closing 2025 with Gratitude and Record-Breaking Impact
By Suzanne de Berge | Co-Founder and Board President
Across rural Guatemala, chronic malnutrition continues to be one of the most urgent challenges families face. Per Hum Data, 47-70% of children under five experience long-term nutritional deficits that affect physical and cognitive growth, development, and lifelong opportunity. According to the World Bank, the average rural household often lives on less than $8 per day, with some
This year, the Seeds for a Future team worked diligently to make significant progress to change that reality. On behalf of our extended global community, more families than ever have gained the knowledge, tools, and confidence to grow their own nutritious food, strengthen their health, and build resilience from the ground up.
Every act of support is helping break the cycle of malnutrition and poverty, one family at a time.
A Year of Record Growth and Life-Changing Impact
To our community of supporters, we thank you. Your generosity empowered a record number of families across rural Guatemala, with over 260 households joining in 2025. In places where healthy food is often inaccessible or unaffordable, your involvement is helping parents plant the seeds of long-term health, stability, and hope.
Families who once relied on expensive, nutrient-poor foods are now cultivating vegetables, fruits, herbs, and small animal protein right at home. These home gardens create lasting food security, improve nutrition for children to improve their performance at school, and reduce financial stress through micro-business creation, as well as other direct and indirect benefits that unlock a thriving future.
A Family’s Story of Change
When Mirna first became a Seeds for a Future Program member, she struggled to afford nutritious food for her children. Today, her backyard is full of nutrient-dense greens, fresh herbs, peppers, and fruit trees that nourish her family every day.
“When the [Seeds for a Future team] teaches us how to work, we all win. Now I have what I need in my garden and no longer have to spend money at the market.”
Her story reflects thousands of similar journeys happening across the region we serve. And all of it is possible because of you.
What You Helped Make Possible in 2025
Leaning into the momentum of this year, our team advanced community-led food security in powerful ways.
1. A Record Number of Families Trained in Home Food Production
More households than ever maximized their weekly 1:1 mentoring in gardening, composting, water safety, kitchen hygiene, and raising small animal protein. Many families also reported new income from selling surplus produce, helping them create financial stability while improving their health.
2. Three New School Gardens Took Root
Children in three new partner schools planted and harvested their own gardens, often for the first time. These gardens feed into school meal programs and nurture a connection to nature, nutrition, and self-sufficiency. For many students, these school meals are the most nutritious food they receive each day.
3. Growing Knowledge in Micro-Business Development
To strengthen Program member income opportunities, our team expanded training in small business planning, household savings, and market strategies. These practical skills help families improve their economic resilience, an essential pathway out of poverty.
4. Partnerships Expanded Into New Regions of Guatemala
Your support helped us collaborate with partners like WINGS, Water4Life, and The M Story to reach communities that have historically been overlooked. These partnerships allow us to multiply impact by integrating nutrition, clean water, women’s health services, and family support.
Since February, 30 new families became Program members through the M Story community. As of December, 200 families received water, sanitation, and hygiene training and received their water filters thanks to our partnership with Water4Life. As the year draws to a close, our team is coordinating additional cervical screenings and health visits for early 2026.
Looking Ahead to 2026
Every week, new families request to join our program. Ongoing generosity ensures we can welcome them, especially in areas most affected by poverty, food insecurity, and climate disruptions.
In the coming year, our team is committed to generating greater impact to:
- Expand school garden programs to ensure more kids connect to organic food sources earlier in life
- Support families in creating micro-business income through excess harvest and new
- Launch new partnerships in underserved regions to bring solutions to more families
- Strengthen hygiene and sanitation initiatives while increasing access to potable water
Together, we are building a future where children grow up nourished, families thrive, and communities break long-standing cycles of poverty through knowledge and home-grown food security.
To learn more about the impact you helped create, open the Seeds for a Future 2025 Impact Report here.
Thank You
Supporting families with basic needs not only helps them to survive, but truly thrive. Thank you for standing with us and fueling this movement for health, resilience, and opportunity in rural Guatemala.
