This weekly post shines a light on a handful of stories from Heifer.org’s “From the Field” section.

Today is World Food Day and this year’s theme, as announced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is “Agricultural Cooperatives – Key to Feeding the World.” Heifer empowers families around the world to achieve food security, and bringing them together as agricultual cooperatives is an effective method to end hunger and poverty. Learn more about Heifer’s cooperatives in the video and stories below.

In Cameroon, members of two self-help groups formed a dairy cooperative seven years ago. In addition to giving them food security, member families have tripled their income.

Hongyu’s Pastured Chicken Cooperative in China recently opened its own store. Now members sell the chickens they raise directly to consumers, with no need for a middleman.

Corina de Jesús Ramirez lives in Nicaragua. Joining a coffee cooperative has given her access to credit, better prices and technical assistance to improve both quantity and quality of production on her farm. Claudio Hernández Vásquez also belongs to a coffee co-op in Nicaragua. His success with growing coffee has allowed him to expand farming activities to include poultry, pigs, vegetables and basic grains.

Marfusha Cooperative was founded in Ukraine in 2009. This milk co-op, which started out small, now provides collection and cooling services and sells high-quality milk to the local Danone plant.