Empower Guatemalan Families With Food & Nutrition

The families working with Seeds for a Future have had great success this year, because of your support. THANK YOU for your kind donation to help rural families improve their lives!

Changing weather conditions effect home gardens a lot, especially in tropical areas like Chocolá. The rainy season was very strong this year and lots of our participating families' Nutrition Gardens really suffered, with many plants destroyed. BUT, the families were able to continue eating high-nutrition meals by growing MUSHROOMS and MICRO-GREENS.

• Mushrooms are can be grown indoors when rain is pouring down outside, and they are highly nutritious. The families raise Oyster mushrooms which are rich in iron, Vitamins B2 and D, niacin (B3) and folic acid (B9), as well as antioxidants. All families in our integrated Casa-Granja program, including 46 new families in the communities of Santo Tomás and San Pablo Jocopilas, have been trained on the proper growing techniques by the Seeds for a Future Team. Some are having so much success, they can sell the extra mushrooms for extra income -- all because of your help.  

• Micro-greens are simply the little starts of regular vegetables -- radish and broccoli work well in Chocolá. Beyond the sprouts stage but still young and tender, micro-greens pack a nutrition punch, often many times more than the adult plant.  They are easy to grow, and because the little plants can be very close together during their short life, they don't require a lot of room.  The trays or discarded plastic containers in which they are grown can be easily moved under a roofed patio or even into the house at times when the rain is too strong.

Your support creates the success of our families.  Here are some ways you can help:

• click on the donate button below or on Facebook 
• make your donation a monthly one
• do all your online shopping via Amazon Smile, with Seeds for a Future as your organization of choice
• earmark part of your year-end bonus or tax refund for Seeds for a Future
• or ALL OF THE ABOVE!!  (YAAAAY!!)

Please be sure to include a gift to Seeds for a Future in your Season of Giving plans. 100% of your financial support goes directly to our Team in Chocolá and thus to the families who participate in our programs. 

YOUR ONGOING SUPPORT IS VITAL SO WE CAN HELP MORE FAMILIES FIGHT AGAINST MALNUTRITION AND BUILD BETTER LIVES FOR THEMSELVES AND THEIR CHILDREN. 

HEARTFELT THANKS from all the families you have helped to have better healthier lives, and BEST WISHES FOR A HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON!

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THIS IS WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE! 

The whole family participates, from planting, to harvesting, to preparing (and eating!) delicious meals.  Bartolo and Flor Elizabet are very happy and successful with their Backyard Farm (Casa Granja).  While the attached photos show mostly their garden, they also have fruit trees and raise poultry and small aminals for protein.  Arody, Juana del Rosio and Eli Bartolo help in the garden, too, and are strong and healthy because the delicious meals Flor Elizabet prepares are also very nutritious.

Notice that the garden is protected from unwelcome guests, such as a neighbor's free-range chickens, or local cats or dogs, by a simple barrier of plastic sheets and support posts.  

The plants being cultivated were chosen for their high nutritive value.  They are mostly native species and well-adapted to local climate conditions.  What's new, is learning how to successfully grow them right outside the home, so families do not have to spend scarce cash for them at the market, or search for them in the forest areas.

An important part of our coaching and support of the families is focused on nutrition -- what it is, why it's important, and how to create balanced meals that will help all family members be healthier and live better lives.  

A BIG THANKS to all our supporters.  Your donations make it possible for our fantastic local team to provide families with  knowledge and skills they can use throughout their lives, and that they can share with others -- spreading the benefits of home grown healthful food to their friends and neighbors, to help build a healthier, more successful comunity.

We need your on-going support, and a gift just now would be very welcome.  Please consider starting a monthly giving plan.  A smaller gift each month will help sustain Seeds for a Future, so we can continue to help people like Bartolo and Flor Elizabet build a better future for Arody, Juana del Rosio and little Eli Bartolo.