Tag: Global Food Initiative

‘I have been meaning to reach out to the Church of the Brethren for 40 years’

From the early 1980s, I have fond memories of the nice young lady asking for volunteers at a small college in western North Carolina. I raised my hand and volunteered to work for hours beside her, and a big draft horse. Little did I know I’d spend several days hand cutting sorghum cane on the steep slopes of a Virginia mountain farm.

Global Food Initiative issues grants for community gardens, agriculture initiatives

The Global Food Initiative of the Church of the Brethren has given a number of grants in the first few months of 2018 to support community gardening efforts, agriculture initiatives, and other work to support food security in a variety of areas across the globe. Grants have been given to projects in the United States, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Spain. For more information go to www.brethren.org/gfi.

Soybean Value Chain initiative advances in Nigeria

The Soybean Value Chain initiative is led by a steering committee of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) with the goal to increase awareness of soybeans as a commercial crop and develop a soybean value chain that will provide sustainable economic benefits to farmers and farming communities.

Global Food Initiative grants support agriculture in several nations

The most recent grants from the Global Food Initiative (GFI) bolster agriculture in several nations including Burundi, Ecuador, India, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela. Find out more about the work of the GFI and how to support it at www.brethren.org/gfi .

Latest Brethren grants from the EDF and GFI are announced

The latest grants from two Church of the Brethren funds–the Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) and the Global Food Initiative (GFI)–have been given to Brethren Disaster Ministries work following flooding in the area of Columbia, S.C.; the church’s mission in South Sudan, where staff are responding to needs of people affected by the country’s civil war; the Shalom Ministry for Reconciliation in the Democratic Republic of Congo serving people affected by conflict; and community gardens related to Church of the Brethren congregations.

Stop the violence, end the famine

It now seems undeniable that famines in our global world are directly related to war and violence. A famine is usually the intersection of deep political, racial, or social injustices compounding food insecurity, malnutrition, and drought found in at-risk communities. If we mix in war and uncontained violence, humanitarian response actors can’t respond and the crisis is elevated to a famine.