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The Sophia Akash Foundation's (SAF) mission is to facilitate sustainable paths out of poverty for the world's poor. We recognise that for those living in poverty, the essential services that enable them to build sustainable livelihoods are unaffordable. Our mission is to change that. We help build strong, sustainable Social Enterprises, using innovative solutions to meet the basic needs of poor and unserved communities. With access to affordable basic services such as financial inclusion, primary healthcare, education and others, households can break the cycle of poverty.

Big Heart Harvest is a non-profit organization whose mission is threefold: 1. Growing food to feed the hungry by distributing what we produce to soup kitchens and rescue missions, as well as personal delivery to families in need. 2. Educating people about the benefits and an individual’s ability to produce their own food in order to provide for their own family’s needs. 3. Empowering people of all walks of life by teaching them to provide for themselves and others they may know who are in need.

Community Food Initiatives (CFI) is a 25 year-old organization serving families and individuals in Appalachia Ohio. The mission of CFI is to ensure everyone has equal access to healthy, local food. CFI's vision is a resilient region in which everyone in our community has access to an equitable, inclusive, and thriving local food system. As a membership-based social benefit organization founded in 1992, Community Food Initiatives is deeply connected to the region. CFI is a long-serving team player within the local food system, as we believe that we benefit when others succeed, because that is how community works. CFI is the only organization in the area routinely donating thousands of pounds of local produce to food pantries, connecting regional seed savers to promote seed diversity and sustainability, managing low-cost community garden plots, supporting school gardens and teaching youth to grow food, and offering gardening and cooking workshops to adults. Community members, regional farmers and food producers, partnering non-profits, local government, and foundations support our work. All of these programs come together to build a stronger community where citizens are empowered to grow and cook their own healthy, whole foods, despite the barriers of poverty. CFI is building capacity to reach more communities across the region by increasing collaborative efforts to fight food insecurity. We value naming our assets-soil, seeds, and an Appalachian heritage of food production and preservation-so that everyone can see their place in strengthening our assets and our community. We believe that by sharing the knowledge to grow and prepare wholesome foods, people become empowered to feed their families, improve their health, and strengthen their community. We are rooted in the belief that equitable access to fresh and nutritious local food leads to a safe and clean environment, meaningful work with livable wages, and fulfills the needs and rights of all people. Finally, we believe in the strength of collaboration and in doing better together. Our work is driven by those we serve: the community members themselves. We currently work in seven program areas: The Donation Station Program collects fresh local food at the Athens Farmers Market, Chesterhill Produce Auction, and farms and distributes it to regional food pantries and social service agencies. Additionally, the Discovery Kitchen project teaches healthy cooking classes to food pantry patrons using seasonal produce. These programs are now serving five Southeastern Ohio Counties - Athens, Meigs, Morgan, Vinton, and Washington. The Community Garden Program manages five community gardens, coordinates gardening and food preservation workshops throughout the year. Currently, we manage 20,000 square feet of garden space at five locations throughout Athens County. The School Garden Program offers support for school and youth gardens, working with day care centers, and youth social service agencies such as Athens County Children Services and all five Athens County school districts. CFI provides resources, consultation, volunteer coordination and curriculum integration resources for teachers. YEAH! Kids (Youth Entrepreneurs at Hope) program is funded by the Athens Metropolitan Housing Authority, and engages low-income youth between the ages of 11 and 18 in production gardening, culinary skills, money management, and professionalism. The YEAH! Kids grow their own produce in a community garden located at Hope Drive apartments, subsidized housing in Athens. They have weekly kitchen workshops where they make products such as jam and kimchi using the produce they grow. The participants sell those products at the Athens Farmers Market, and they log their hours and get paid according to how much work they put into the garden and kitchen. Ridge & Hollow Seed Alliance is CFI's regional seed company, named for the hills and valleys of Appalachia. Ridge & Hollow supports the preservation of regionally adapted, open-pollinated seeds through partnerships with skilled seed savers in the Central Appalachian region. Additionally, Ridge & Hollow Seed Alliance hosts seed saving workshops and annual seed exchanges. SEO FOODLINK is an action research project that maps emergency food networks and compiles data from 10 Southeast Ohio counties into an online resource hub. This is a new initiative launched by CFI in 2017, in partnership with West Virginia University. FOODLINK is designed to alleviate food insecurity through the sharing of resources and facilitation of grassroots collaborations.

Gleaners Community Food Bank, with broad community support, fights hunger in southeastern Michigan. In collaboration with our member agencies, the Feeding America network, and our program partners, we provide millions of pounds of donated and purchased food to people in need. In so doing, Gleaners is committed to distributing nutritional, high-quality​ food. Through education and advocacy, we will reduce reliance on the emergency food system. Gleaners adopts best practices and cost effective systems and procedures to achieve the highest possible return on its human and financial resources. Gleaners fulfills its role with a sense of compassion and urgency while nourishing, sustaining and advancing hope in our community.

Crecemos DIJO is a community base organization that offers holistic early childhood development, education, nutrition and sporting programs to reduce the social inequity of children and youth in the marginalized rural and peri-urban neighborhoods of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Crecemos currently reaches over 600 children and 400 mothers. Crecemos DIJO es una organizacion comunitaria que ofrece programas integrales de desarrollo, educacion, nutricion y deportes para la primera infancia para reducir la inequidad social de ninos y jovenes en los barrios marginales rurales y periurbanos del estado de Oaxaca, Mexico. Actualmente, Crecemos llega a mas de 600 ninos y 400 madres.

APF's mission is to reinforce the community of Fondwa Haiti, as well as, other local grassroots organizations throughout Haiti so that they can create wealth in their own rural communities. The current APF Programs in Fondwa include: - Basic Infrastructure creation and improvement (roads, buildings, irrigation, etc.); - Environmental protection, renewable energy, and reforestation (solar power, tree planting, agricultural best practices, etc.) - Access to drinking water, health care, financial services, and food security (potable water, clinic, credit union, orphanage, radio station, etc.) - Education through a primary/secondary school for 600+ regional children and Haiti's first rural peasant university - Small businesses including Restaurant Lakay, construction material depot and transportation services - Several post-earthquake construction projects continue

Equip Manyatta is a charity organization created to assist a community-based organization in Western Kenya, the Manyatta Youth Resource Center (MYRC). The officers of Equip Manyatta were instrumental in assisting community members in Kisumu to establish the MYRC. The mission of the MYRC is to increase opportunities for youth living in the slums of Manyatta, Kisumu to participate in sporting activities and the performing arts, to provide health education, support school attendance, and to build the organization into a self sustaining enterprise. Manyatta is the largest slum in Western Kenya and is home to over 60,000 people living in an area of five square miles with little in the way of urban infrastructure. Kisumu is the third largest city in Kenya, with roughly 578,000 people. Other goals include providing activities that engage youth in positive endeavors to avoid delinquency, encouraging school attendance and fostering peaceful forms of communication to avoid the sort of vicious violence experienced in the area after the last national election.