A PWRDF Good News Story - Fred Says: Veg Out!

The Montreal Unit of the PWRDF has selected the Fred Says project Veg Out to support throughout the fall. 

To learn more about this food security initiative, please join us on Thursday, September 10th at noon in Fulford Hall, 1444 Union Ave, Montreal. Light refreshments will be served; you are also welcome to bring your lunch. We hope you can join us!

PWRDF is partnering with the Diocese of Masasi and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) to fund food security work in the Nachingwea and Masasi districts of southeastern Tanzania.  

Twenty farmers were given seeds to grow maize, twenty cassava and fifteen ground nuts.  Under the oversight of the Tanzanian government, these farmers had their seeds certified as foundation seeds, which enables them to sell them to other farmers in the region. Certification as seed growers also allows the farmers to continue to grow and sell seeds in the community. Each farmer donates 20% of their crop back to the village seed bank, where they will be distributed to other farmers in the community for use the following year. They in turn will pass the seeds on. 

This program is vital in the region as most households only have enough food for four to eight months each year.  At the end of the five-year program, households will have enough to eat ten months every year.