Sustainability: Food Production

Outside of local church ownership, a vital part of sustainable child care is food production. By far, food is the heaviest line item in the monthly care budget.

I just got done visiting our partner site in Kabale, Uganda. Through its own local farming efforts and community giving, our local church partner here covered 25% of the total food budget for the children last year. The church finished 20,000,000 Ugandan shillings under budget. That’s about $9,000 USD. They’re continuing on this trajectory this year.

Here are some pics…

Just planted sweet potatoes. The farm area goes down the hill past the trees. The farming gets done by members of the church, and the kids help (and learn).

Piggery at Kabale

Now guess how much this partner asked from us for its farming efforts so far? $0. The church did this on its own.

When we see such passion and initiative, we want to get behind it and push. This church is asking for some modest help to scale up its ag efforts and several local business ventures. It’s a joy to have such discussions, rather than talks about increased aid.