Author Archives: Heifer International

About Heifer International

Heifer International works with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the Earth. With gifts of livestock and training, Heifer projects help families improve their nutrition and generate income in sustainable ways. We refer to the animals as "living loans," because in exchange for their livestock and training, families agree to give one of their animal's offspring to another family in need. It's called Passing on the Gift–a cornerstone of our mission that creates a lasting and sustainable impact.

Heifer Staff Give Back

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Story submitted by Stephanie Chesher, senior director of Donor Services and Operations at Heifer International.

 It all started about four years ago when LoriJo and Kent Peters lost their 19-year-old son, Collin, in a tragic motorcycle accident. After his death, his parents wanted to make some sense of what had happened and wanted something to keep them busy through their first Christmas holiday without their young son. The Peters are members of Church of the Brethren, so they were very familiar with Heifer and our animal model–especially the sheep. Collin happened to love sheep. As a toddler and throughout his childhood, he carried around his stuffed animal “Sheepie.” Even as he got older, his dream was to buy a farm so he could raise his own sheep. Because he loved sheep so much throughout his lifetime, there was a real, live sheep at his funeral.


So fast forward to this past January. After raising more than $11,000, the Peters again raised a record-breaking $5,600 for the 2010 holiday season. But something horrible happened. Somewhere, somehow, this package of donations never arrived at Heifer Headquarters. All the work, all the time, and the Peters family’s legacy for Collin were gone in an instant. Most of these donors that contributed to the Collin Peters fund were friends, family, or church members, but others were complete strangers who read about Collin’s fundraiser in a newspaper article. Obviously, the Peters family was devastated with the situation. 

Our team at Donor and Volunteer Services here at Heifer wanted to help the family, and we all jumped in to help figure out a plan. We contacted all their donors over the last few months, and to date we have received $4,200 of the $5,600 original donation. Now, our team at Heifer is working hard to raise the remaining $1,400 to match their original donation. After a great bake sale on October 21, we are on our way to reaching the goal.
Heifer Donor and Volunteer Services staff hold their
first bake sale to raise funds

“As upsetting as it was to have all those checks lost back in January, beautiful things have come from it. Thanks to Heifer, I must say. God bless you all and all you’ve done for us and for Collin’s memory.” – LoriJo Peters, Collin’s Mother


Do you have someone you’d like to give in honor or memory of this holiday season? Visit our online Gift Catalog, and find the right donation for your loved one.
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Heifer Staff Lend a Hand in Hughes, Arkansas

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Continuing today’s conversation about poverty in Heifer’s homestate, we take you to Hughes, Arkansas, which has a poverty rate of 38 percent. This past Monday, Heifer Headquarters staff, visiting Country Directors and Heifer’s United States Program staff took a road trip to Hughes to lend a hand cleaning up the Mildred Jackson Elementary School for a Day of Service with Hughes citizens. Heifer Copywriter Falguni Vyas was among the staff to participate, and she shares the following reflection.

Hughes,Arkansas: a small blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town located in the Arkansas delta wasonce an agricultural boomtown. At its height, Hughes was a town of 1,900people, a mix of sharecroppers and farmers that put the town on the map as anagricultural hotspot in northeastern Arkansas.
Today,Hughes tells a much different story.
Now,there are more stray dogs than people, more abandoned or run down buildingsthen there are live-able habitats. It’s a town that as little as two years agoechoed a pre-civil rights America (not that racial tension has completelydisappeared today). It’s a town in desperate need to find itself and regain itsformer glory.
Hugheshas become yet another fallen soldier to the mechanization of the agriculturalindustry as well as the dearth of support America’s small farmers receive.Whatever food is produced in the area is normally sent out to the big buyers,leaving little to no healthy food choices for those who grow it. In addition,there are few options for the town’s small farmers as land is expensive anddifficult to acquire. The big farmers in Hughes (and there are a few verysuccessful ones out there) employ very few people, making employment hard tocome by. The town’s economic mainstay? Public assistance.
Whenthe industry started to collapse, many of the town’s small farmers left,leaving the sharecroppers to take over. Because this segment of Hughes’population had so little training, the area went into rapid decline.
“Lackof leadership is the biggest problem in the delta,” said mayor Larry Owens.Owens, the first black mayor in Hughes, has only been in office for 10 months.A Vietnam War veteran, in his past life he also served as a special agent withFish and Wildlife Services with the Department of the Interior. He moved toHughes with his wife five years ago and was appalled by what he saw. With a lotof know-how and more can-do spirit than your average person, he has made it hismission to restore Hughes to its rightful place.
HeiferInternational’s United States Program, several visiting Country Directors fromaround the globe, and Headquarters staff from various departments joined Hughesfor a day of service this past Monday. The event kicked off at 11 am with apress junket, where Mayor Owens, representatives of the state, Heifer and othernonprofit partners said a few words in honor of the shared goals of creating betterfood options, developing the local economy and preserving local naturalresources.
Day of Service Volunteers
Heiferstaff rolled up their sleeves alongside Hughes citizens and got down and dirty.Armed with saws, brooms and a few machetes, these agents of change spent anafternoon clearing away weeds, trash and debris from the Mildred JacksonElementary School.
Hughes community volunteers at work
Heifer staff members Jason Woods, Suzanne Munson
and Gretchen Schirmer bag trash at the end of the day
Translator Sam DuBois takes out the trash 
Hughes Mayor Larry Owens and Heifer
United States Program Director Perry Jones
“It’simportant to recognize that dire poverty exists here in the United States aswell as in developing countries,” said Perry Jones, director of Heifer’s United States Program. “Heifer’s model encourages long-term changes to take hold in acommunity so that healthy food becomes more accessible for everyone.”

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Biogas: More than a source of energy

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by Puja Singh  – Heifer Nepal

Poverty has many dimensions. While being poor relates directly to having less to eat, energy is definitely a primary concern for many poor families around the world.  A recent poverty matters blog post looks at how energy directly impacts the poverty situation in many poor countries. 
 
In Nepal, the lack of energy is not just a problem for the poor. The country has continuously had to schedule rolling blackouts for many years now. A general problem intensifies when it reaches the poor. Most of the rural communities are not connected to the grid. Women and girls, primary caregivers for the family, spend hours in a day searching for firewood in the already dwindling forest. These are hours that might have been better spent farming or perhaps, if she is lucky enough, studying.
 
A solution to the current energy situation in Nepal is huge investments in hydro power and solar power fueled by aid and government money. Are they useful? Yes. Are they enough? Probably not. Overlooking the time it will take for these plans to materialize and not addressing the politics that might keep these projects from finishing or even launching, fulfilling the urban energy deficit will still be a priority. People in the cities can pay, enabling the government to pay back the loan from World Bank or some other entity.
 
A better solution is biogas. Many Heifer projects that give buffalos also provide support for installation of a biogas plant. The manure from the animals is used to produce methane gas used as fuel for cooking and to light bulbs. This diagram below explains how it all works, and more information about biogas plant construction can be found here.

 
Heifer’s work in countries with multi-faceted problems like Nepal does not just stop in giving livestock gifts to end hunger. But it can invest in innovative ways which can address other over-arching problems with the use of livestock and agriculture. Yes — biogas provides energy. But it does so much more:
  • Saves time that would be spent in searching firewood and allows for girl children to focus on schooling often neglected due to manual chores.
  • Produces smokeless fire, lessening the occurrence of tuberculosis, impaired vision and breathing problems. 
  • Produces light so work can be done and children can read after dark. 
  • Produces manure slurry which is excellent organic fertilizer. 
  • Aids in managing animal and human organic waste. 
  • Reduces the demand for fossil fuel.

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This Week in Food: Food on the Move

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This October, we’re hosting a series of posts by Heifer Senior Coordinator of School Programs Kim Machnik. You can read our introductory post here, and check back Monday afternoons for more.

Haveyou been hearing a lot about food recently? I don’t just mean here on theHeifer blog, where we’ve been highlighting food issues and resources throughoutthe month. It used to be that most food conversations ran along a fewconsistent lines: great recipes or restaurants, what to eat to lose weight, andoccasionally the plight of those without enough to eat. Recently, though, thereseems to have been a shift in the collective consciousness. Suddenly, peopleseem to be talking a LOT more about where food comes from, who grows it, whatit does to our bodies, and our right to healthy, safe foods. A movement isafoot, populated by the likes of MichaelPollan, AliceWaters, Anna Lappé,and many more.


Communitiesare declaring food sovereignty, Wal-Mart is participating in UC Berkeley’sEdible Education class, Heifer has launched the Seeds of Changeinitiative to reinvent the food systems of the Arkansas Delta and SouthernAppalachia, and there is a huge push to require labelingof genetically modified foods. People are asking big questions. Who has theright to decide what foods are available to us? What kinds of farming are safe,healthy, just, and sustainable? What is a fair price to pay for food we canfeel good about? What is the government’s role in ensuring our food security?

That’swhy today is such a zeitgeist. It’s Food Day, a celebration of eating real anda call to action for Americans to scrutinize our food systems. Visit their website for Food Day events in yourcity, or find your own way to make today about healthy, sustainable food. Ifyou’re ready to really revolutionize the way your community eats, take a lookat Heifer’s Farmto Plate action idea.


Thismovement is in a position to change the way the US and the world think aboutand engage with food. As it gains momentum, we all have the opportunity todecide what kind of food world we want, and be part of the change that makes itso.
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A Hefty Potato Harvest in Shirakamut Village, Armenia

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Original story and photos by Knarine Ghazanchyan, program/training coordinator for Heifer Armenia


When summer ends and gives way to fall, the Armenian landscape is covered with earth tones and a golden hue. The incredible beauty is the perfect backdrop for the farmers as they prepare to gather the harvest they have been working for the entire summer.

A wide variety of fruits and vegetables are waiting in the gardens to be picked. Families throughout the rural areas gather their harvests and, in preparation for the upcoming winter, dry or can the fruits and vegetables. Many farmers put aside part of the harvest for planting the next spring. This is also the time to calculate the income generated from the harvest sales.


Heifer Armenia regularly monitors and visits the rural communities involved with its projects. During one such visit to the Shirakamut community, they met project participant Karen Temuryan. He was busy calculating how much income his potato harvest yielded. Born and raised in Shirakamut, 30-year-old Karen is full of energy and enthusiasm, and has exciting plans for the future. Three years ago he married 27-year-old Lala, and they now have a 2-year-old daughter, Goharik, who is the pride of her parents.


In the spring of 2010, Karen became a Heifer Armenia project participant. The project, Agricultural Production and Youth Development to Build Sustainable Livelihoods in Shirakamut Village, is implemented in partnership with the Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA). He actively participated in the trainings on potato growing and other agricultural topics that Heifer Armenia provided to its project participants.

At the time Heifer Armenia visited Shirakamut, Karen had already gathered his potato harvest, and he was very happy with the result. “I’m very thankful to Heifer Armenia and AMAA for giving me the opportunity to be engaged in the project,” he said. “It’s unbelievable ‑ I planted 661 pounds of potatoes, and now my harvest is about two tons. I worked hard during the summer, and as a result I received a very good harvest. When you work diligently, you get good results.”


Karen plans to to sell about one ton of the harvest, and the rest will be used for family consumption. Karen said that next year he plans to work even harder to get a greater harvest of potatoes so he can then pass on high-quality potato seeds to other people through the Heifer project. He wants to help other needy families secure stable sources of income and live a sustainable and self-reliant life.

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In Search of a Good Burger

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Today is Blog Action Day 2011. It is also World Food Day. This year’s theme for Blog Action Day is Food. Bloggers all over the world are writing about this one theme, from their own unique perspective. To find out more, visit the Blog Action Day website. Read more of our Blog Action Day posts on Heifer Blog here. 


The following post is by Tina Hall, communications director at Heifer International. 

I am a meat eater surrounded by vegetarians and vegans and even something called freegans that I learned about this week. Apparently freegans eat food that has been thrown into the garbage. This goes well beyond the 30-second rule and George Costanza eating an éclair plucked from a kitchen trash can: “No, no, no. It was not trash … It wasn’t down in. It was sort of on top.”
My burger love extends back to childhood with Happy Meals for good report cards and memories of holiday barbecues with my family. How can something so good be so bad?  The adult version of me has fought against a growing awareness of how those hamburgers I eat have an impact not only on our waistlines, but also the environment.
So imagine my happiness to find a restaurant called b.good on a recent trip to Boston. The owners Anthony and Jon explain on the company website, “We loved fast-food, but hated how it made us feel. So, we created a place where you can feel good about burgers and fries.” Their approach includes making all food themselves with the assistance of local farmers and growers.
Is it still meat? Yes, of course, but at least words like all-natural and local are involved in the conversation. And yes, it was a very good burger.
As we vote with our dollars in favor of locally or sustainably sourced meat (or at least not ground beef treated with ammonia), more and more restaurants are providing us with burgers not so far from home. Are there restaurants in your city or town serving local meats or other foods?
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Reasons and Tools for Transitioning to Vegetarianism and Veganism

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Today is Blog Action Day 2011. It is also World Food Day. This year’s theme for Blog Action Day is Food. Bloggers all over the world are writing about this one theme, from their own unique perspective. To find out more, visit the Blog Action Day website. Read more of our Blog Action Day posts on Heifer Blog here. 


The following post is by Erin Snow, communications manager at Heifer International. 

The reasons people decideto adopt a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle can be numerous and, even despitesimilarities, very personal. I grew up eating meat at most meals, but it wasnever my favorite part. I always preferred the starches and leafy green vegetables.Looking back, I never really felt good about eating something that lost theirlife so that my meal could be “complete,” but I didn’t make any real changes tomy diet until 1999 when a medical issue caused me to look more closely at thefood I consumed and how it affected my health. As a single mom to aone-year-old daughter, I was determined to be proactive about our future andkeep whatever I could control in check. At that time, vegetarianism seemed thelogical answer. Over the past 12 years, I’ve been a lazy vegetarian, not eatingmeat, but definitely not eating enough vegetables and fruit to be healthy. I’vealso dabbled in pescetarianism, where seafood is okay, but all other flesh isout, a choice made while visiting my now-husband in New Orleans, where shrimp,crab, oysters and other aquatic jewels can be found as far as eye can see. Po’Boys and crawfish and gumbo, oh my! In an effort to be serious about my healthand safeguard against predisposed laziness, I’ve recently taken the next stepand become vegan.


Sticking to a diet that isvoid of animal-derived products has been educational, for sure. Fortunately, Ihave a couple of vegan friends, Rena Wrenand Meredith Simonds, who have happily shared recipes, websites, books andgeneral tips for being vegan in a carnivore world. Meredith’s website, The Vegan Pledge, features a pledge,blog and other resources. Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Life website and book, The Kind Diet, have been my go-toresources on my vegan journey. Kris Carr, who went vegan for health reasons,also has an extremely helpful website, CrazySexy Life, and books, including CrazySexy Diet. Did you know there’s such a thing as wine that is not vegan?Isinglass, a collagen that comes from dehydrated swim bladders of fish, isoften used in the clarifying process for beer and wine. Barnivore is a great website guide forfinding insinglass-free vegan beer, wine and liquor.


These resources have beenvaluable tools on a lovely and healthy lifestyle journey that I’m having funfiguring out.

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Eating with the Seasons

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Today is Blog Action Day 2011. It is also World Food Day. This year’s theme for Blog Action Day is Food. Bloggers all over the world are writing about this one theme, from their own unique perspective. To find out more, visit the Blog Action Day website. Read more of our Blog Action Day posts on Heifer Blog here. 


The following post is by Kim Machnik, senior coordinator of school programs at Heifer International. 

Photo by NancyK. Creative Commons.

It’sOctober, and where I come from, that means it’s time to celebrate. The applesare here. During the summer, we’re busy with sugar-sweet berries, juicy cornthe color of butter, and tomatoes bursting with sunshine, but those are pastnow. It’s the season of the apple, and with it the sensation of spicy steamfrom a mug of mulled cider against the backdrop of trees in their Sunday bestand air crisp as the pages of a new book. The first bite of a freshly pickedCortland apple is the trumpet call of autumn for me- anticipated but somehowunexpected.


Judgingon the basis of flavor alone, one has to conclude that to eat seasonally ispreferable. I can say with confidence that there is no one who prefers ananemic tomato shivering in a produce bin in February to a late-July braggart ofa fruit, puffed up with its own evident importance and months of sunshine andwarm soil. A limp head of November lettuce, compared to its rigid and robustMay counterpart? No contest. And it may just be me, but no apple from a supermarketshelf in March will ever compare to that jeweled treasure plucked from abeneficent tree in October.


Whata loss it has been to our society to step away from eating foods in their ownseasons! To wait through the dark months for the first stalk of tender greenasparagus, to cry with joy at the first appearance of a raspberry on its bush,to settle in to the first frozen night of early winter with a deep bowl ofcreamy-spicy squash soup- these are profoundly human, deeply culturalexperiences that help us to richly experience the passage of time. Born andraised in Massachusetts, when I bake my first apple pie of the year, I amconnected to generations of New Englanders who have celebrated the turning ofthe seasons in the same way. In Arkansas, my current home, it’s greens in thespring and peaches in the summer that have been celebrated and enjoyedcommunally for time immemorial. 


Whatis more worthy of our patience, anticipation, and joy than that which sustainsus? What greater earthly reward for our forbearance is there than a gift fromthe soil and sun, presented at its absolute prime? What keeps us connected toour homelands and communities better than the shared experience of the best oftheir bounty? I contend that there is nothing. If you disagree, I suggest you findyourself an orchard and pick some apples.

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Food and Family

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Today is Blog Action Day 2011. It is also World Food Day. This year’s theme for Blog Action Day is Food. Bloggers all over the world are writing about this one theme, from their own unique perspective. To find out more, visit the Blog Action Day website. Read more of our Blog Action Day posts on Heifer Blog here. 


The following post is by Kim Nixon, assistant to the senior director of Branding and Communications at Heifer International. 


This is just about myfavorite time of the year. The holidays are almost here and for most peoplethis is when things start to get a little crazy – Halloween trick-or-treating,planning Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping, making sure Santa still exists toyour children, etc. For me, this is a time for family and food.   

I’m sure you’re thinking“Halloween is a time for family and food?” My best memories of Halloween arewearing costumes with my brothers and walking door to door asking for candy. Ilove the question “trick or treat.” As a kid I always wanted the treat becauseI loved having a big bag of candy. When I got home, I would always sort thecandy. I only realized later that my parents were checking the candy foranything to suggest that it may have been tampered with. For me, it was alwaysabout what kinds of candy I received – chocolate, suckers, hard candy, chewycandy, candy corn, etc. Finding pictures of us dressed up like vampires andangels remind me of a simpler time.


Thanksgiving is always afun time of the year. Apart from it being celebrated on or around my birthday,it’s a time for my extended family to get together. My dad is one of ninechildren. Every Thanksgiving, we all get together for the weekend – aunts,uncles, cousins, grandkids. We’re a growing bunch. For three days we laugh,play and cook together. Thanksgiving Day is particularly enticing. You wake upto the smell of chocolate gravy, biscuits, eggs, sausage, bacon and coffee.You’ve seen the cartoons where the main character is lifted from their bedfollowing the aroma of whatever is cooking. That’s my family. And it doesn’tstop there. As soon as breakfast is over, it’s time to start the Thanksgivingmeal which is somewhere between lunch and dinner. (I’d like to call it ‘lunner’or ‘dinch’ but it doesn’t have the same ring that ‘brunch’ has for the breakfast/lunchcombination.) With everyone in or around the kitchen, it’s fun to watch auntstelling cousins how to make the stuffing (which is a family secret) or kidsrunning in between everyone cooking. It’s a little crazy at times, but I’mthankful for my wonderful family. They truly make the meal with love. You wouldthink that Thanksgiving day is where it ends, but for my family this cooking andeating together continues until Sunday.

This brings us toChristmas. Christmas in my house is full of goodies. My mom cooks all of ourfavorite sweets – peanut butter balls, humdingers, and more. These are thingswe only make once or twice a year. Growing up, we made cookies for Santa. EachChristmas, I’d place them out and go to sleep with visions of sugar plumsdancing in my head. Well, it may not have been sugar plums but it wassomething. Each Christmas Day, Santa would have eaten a cookie or two and drankhis milk. And I would usually get something from my Christmas list under theChristmas tree. As you get older, some of these traditions stop…although Istill took pictures with Santa until I was well into my 20s. With atwo-year-old niece, we’ll be making cookies for Santa again.


Food has always been a wayto bring our family together whether it’s the joy of cooking our meal togetherin a cramped kitchen or enjoying the food prepared with conversation andlaughter. Most people think of Paula Deen when they think of Southern food –butter, butter and more butter. For me, Southern food is about family. It’s thememories you create that last long after the food is gone.

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Food Insecurity Still Exists in South Africa

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Aliziwe Matyholo, age 9

Today is Blog Action Day 2011. It is also World Food Day. This year’s theme for Blog Action Day is Food. Bloggers all over the world are writing about this one theme, from their own unique perspective. To find out more, visit the Blog Action Day website. Read more of our Blog Action Day posts on Heifer Blog here.

by Claire Hawkridge and Magdalena Wos – Heifer South Africa

Food security means knowing where your next meal is coming from. It means not having to worry about whether your children will get sick because they don’t have the right food to eat. Food security means growing up healthy and being able to take part in the bright future of the country. For 12 million South Africans, food security is a distant dream.

Olivier De Schutter, United Nations Special Repporteur on the Right to Food, visited South Africa in July. In his report to the government he said that 12 million people in this country are food insecure, 70 per cent of those in rural areas.* World Food Day on 16 October 2011 is a celebration for those who have enough. For those who are food insecure, it is another reminder that they do not have access to regular, safe, healthy food. Heifer International South Africa (Heifer) is working hard to raise awareness about this significant and growing problem in our country this World Food Day.

Food insecurity is particularly prevalent in rural South Africa. The country’s agricultural sector is divided into well-developed large-scale commercial activities and underdeveloped small scale producers, many of whom are subsistence farmers. This isn’t the way it works in many other countries, where many products are grown on small farms by small-scale commercial producers because it makes better economic sense. Small farms can be profitable businesses when the conditions are right.

In South Africa, the food system positions poor rural families as consumers rather than producers. This makes them extremely vulnerable to volatile food costs and the high cost of travelling to urban areas or purchasing from small, expensive local shops. Without the resources and skills to produce high-quality food locally or market access to sell their produce, poor rural families are doubly disadvantaged – they struggle to find employment or income generating opportunities and they must pay more for food because the transportation costs from urban centres are so high.

Heifer International South Africa believes it doesn’t have to be this way. The thousands of families we’ve helped to become small farmers over the past decade agree. Heifer works with impoverished rural communities to end hunger and poverty in South Africa and to care for the earth. With the help of our donors, we provide rural families with training, agricultural inputs (seeds, fruit tree saplings, livestock), assistance with business development and on-going support. Project members move from struggling to find enough to eat, to producing food for themselves and their immediate families and finally to micro agro-business development, where they work together to effectively market their produce, build up their businesses and eventually create jobs for other community members. Animals are used because of the income generating and food security opportunities they provide, both through animal products and through the use of manure as fertilizer to grow fruit and vegetables.

But it isn’t only the people who receive livestock from Heifer International South Africa who benefit. Building food secure communities means helping individual families achieve greater, more regular access to healthy food but it also means helping those families to help others around them. Through Heifer’s unique Passing on the Gift® concept, each family that receives animals (and begins to build a business) also gives an animal to another family. Families pass on food security and income generating opportunities to each other.

World Food Day is an important opportunity for all South Africans to learn about the real hunger and poverty that still exists in our country. It is also an opportunity to remember that it doesn’t have to be this way. There are ways to transform the food system and the lives of those who still face the fear and indignity of not knowing where their next meal will come from. Consumers can choose to buy food, whenever possible, from small farmers. Government, business and civil society can work together to improve market access for small farmer cooperatives. And everyone can donate to organisations like Heifer International South Africa who are working with communities to help them change their own situation through livestock, training, support and Passing on the Gift. For more information on what Heifer is doing to end food insecurity, please visit www.heifer.org.za.

This article originally appeared on the Heifer South Africa website.

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