A strategic partnership between Tenderstem® and Action Against Hunger has left a lasting impact on hundreds of families facing food poverty in the UK, Spain and Kenya, following 12-months of community initiatives.
One year into its partnership with the international hunger charity, Tenderstem® has delivered three major projects, each with the mission of eliminating hunger and giving local communities access to fresh, healthy produce.
In the UK and Spain, Tenderstem® has been supporting Action Against Hunger’s Social Supermarkets, which give low-income households the opportunity to give a small donation for a week’s worth of highly nutritious groceries every week, to keep their family from going hungry.
Over the past year, Tenderstem®’s product and financial donations have supported over 1,200 people through community pantries, part-funded meals for almost 300 children during school holidays, part-funded 400 food hampers for families in need, and fully funded five cooking classes, helping families develop healthy and low-cost meals.
The project, which aimed to improve healthy diets and reduce food poverty amongst children and their families during the cost-of-living crisis, saw an increased uptake of food pantries in target areas and improved consumption of nutritious and varied diets.
The partnership has also delivered a nine-month-long Climate Smart Kitchen Gardening project in the West Pokot County of Kenya, supporting local communities and building their resilience against recurrent shocks, such as erratic rainfall, floods, and drought, which lead to significant food insecurity.
Following Tenderstem®’s donation of funds, seeds and equipment, 100 women were supported with the establishment of a kitchen garden demonstration plot each. They also received training on a range of topics, including agricultural practices and agronomy, vegetable production, and business and financial skills, to enable them to feed their families and sell their produce at local markets.
With over 700 people benefitting, the first phase of the Climate Smart Kitchen Gardening project has left a legacy on the community, improving food security, reducing unemployment and increasing income levels. Households growing vegetables has increased from 13.5% to 59.9% and vegetable consumption has risen to 86.1%.
As the partnership enters its second year, Tenderstem® and Action Against Hunger have even bigger ambitions, with plans to expand the West Pokot Climate Smart Kitchen Gardening Project and supporting even more social supermarkets across the UK and Spain.
Phase two of the Climate Smart Kitchen Gardening project will support up to 15 mother-to-mother support groups, focusing on improving maternal, infant, and young child feeding practices by supporting groups of pregnant and nursing mothers. The groups will be trained to grow nutritious foods and engage in income-generating activities, leading to better food security and livelihoods for 720 community members in West Pokot.
Dave Samuels, EMEA Brand Director of Tenderstem® said: “Our partnership with Action Against Hunger is all about delivering projects that tackle food poverty head on, leaving a lasting impact on the communities we work with. Over the past 12-months, we have done exactly that, from funding social supermarkets across the UK and Spain, to building climate smart kitchen gardens in Kenya. Not only have we helped hundreds of families access healthy, fresh produce, but we have also given them the tools to build a sustainable income and future through fresh produce.
“As we move into our second year of the partnership, we have even bigger ambitions, but our mission remains the same – to eliminate hunger by giving local communities access to fresh, healthy produce.”
