Food impact report - Summer 2025

An update on MCC food projects

Parma Bardaset, a farmer from Bhutadi, India smiles as he stands in front of bean plants he grew in his kitchen garden.

India Nigeria — Aug 2025

menu_book Impact report

Food

August 01, 2025

Sowing seeds of peace in India

Connecting communities and building opportunity through farming

People living in the Kandhamal District in eastern India have endured decades of conflict. Discrimination and violence between religious groups have fueled poverty, unemployment and conflict in communities across the district.

MCC partner Society for Nature, Education and Health (SNEH) works with local farmers to promote peace through economic opportunity. With your support, 1,126 people from 270 households have learned to grow more food and have explored new ways to earn an income with farming.

Here are a few highlights from the past year:

Participants learned how to prepare and use
organic fertilizers and improve farm yields using
new techniques like line sowing.
30 farmers received vegetable seeds like beans,
corn, radish, pumpkin and gourds.
120 goats were distributed to 60 households with
training on how to care for them. Rearing baby
goats is a new and valuable source of income for
farmers.

*Banner photo caption: Parma Badaset smiles as he shows the bean plants thriving in his kitchen garden. With your support, Parma and his fellow farmers in Bhutadi, India, are working hard to learn new farming techniques. (MCC photo/Mercy Jishing)

Growing a brighter future for families in India

Saramai Mallick of India proudly holds rice that she grew herself to improve her life and her community. — Widowed and living in debt, Saramai struggled to feed her family. Your compassionate generosity created an opportunity for her to learn new agricultural skills. Her paddy yield has increased significantly and she is on her way to repaying her debts, feeding her family independently and building for her future. (Photo courtesy of SNEH/Sunil Kadmaset)

With your help, farmers like Saramai are improving yields

For years, Saramai struggled. Coming from a poor background, her challenges mounted when her husband passed away a few years ago.

As a day labourer, Saramai earned just Rs.300 ($4.85 CAD) a day – not enough to cover her family’s needs. Saramai worked additional hours and began borrowing money from people in her community.

Yet still, all the money she had went to purchase food for her family.

With the support of donors like you, Saramai participated in a recent Line Sowing Training Program hosted by MCC partner Society for Nature, Education and Health (SNEH). Putting her learnings into practice, Saramai planted her paddy using these new methods and grew four more bags of rice than last year. She also planted a small garden and sells jhudunga (beans), turmeric and ginger to her neighbours.

Armed with knowledge and a new skillset, Saramai is hopeful she can repay her debts quickly. She is an inspiration to her community and is generous in sharing her knowledge and experience with those around her.

Partner spotlight: Society for Nature, Education and Health

Society for Nature, Education and Health (SNEH) is a non-denominational, not-for-profit organization founded in 1992 in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. With a unique focus on projects that support vulnerable children, SNEH’s team has worked hard over the years to create change through income generation projects, health initiatives, education programs and eco-conservation work.

Kickstarting local businesses in Nigeria

Joseph Maisaje Dachung of Nigeria kneels in his strawberry crop, using hoses for irrigation. — Joseph Maisaje Dachung uses hoses to irrigate his strawberry crop. Donors like you have helped Joseph expand his farming activities through loans from his local VSLA. Now, he saves money every week and his family’s health continues to improve. (Photo courtesy of Urban Ministry/Akyuku Nenrot Ernest)

Your generosity is powering community-based development

While Nigeria is rich in natural resources, clashes between herdsmen and farmers and conflict between religious and ethnic groups are ongoing. Violence fuels poverty which in turn fuels more violence.

MCC partner Urban Ministry (UM) has established 20 Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) in 22 communities of Bassa, Riyom, Barkin Ladi, Jos South and Jos North.

Through these VSLAs, 500 community leaders a year receive training in business skills, record-keeping and other life-skills like nutrition, peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

With your generous support, approximately $20,064 CAD was distributed this year to 500 participants to boost or seed their small business. Excess funds were saved in their local VSLA to gain interest.

To learn more about MCC food initiatives visit mcc.org/food

What is a VSLA?

A Village Savings and Loan Association is a self-managed and self-capitalized savings group that uses members’ savings along with the interest accrued to lend to each other. When carefully managed, VSLAs leverage positive social pressure and are a very effective tool for economic growth in communities.

Your impact around the world

The reasons for food insecurity vary, but the impact is the same. Without reliable access to food, people become malnourished. They grow weak. And too often, lives are lost. Here are a few recent examples of how you’re helping feed people around the world:

Initiative: Your gifts provided 95 women with soil, seedling trays and vegetable seeds. Through this project, you are empowering women in rural communities to participate in farming and earn an income.

Partner: New Dawn Association of El Salvador (Asociación Nuevo Amanecer
de El Salvador)

Initiative: Your generosity is supporting 375 farmers in northern Chad plant and harvest climate-resistant crops. Through training groups, farmers are learning new ways to survive and thrive when the weather is unpredictable.

Partner: Association for the Promotion of Education

Initiative: Your help championed 500 farmers to attend Farmer Field Schools in Turkana region. By focusing on crop rotation and soil fertility, farmers are learning new ways to unlock the productivity of their fields.

Partner: The National Council of Churches of Kenya

Initiative: With your help, 1,440 farmers planted 800 guava, lemon and mango fruit trees in Bangladesh, as they continue to build resilience and adapt to the realities of a changing climate.

Partner: Udayan Swabolombee Sangstha, Maitree Palli Unnayan Sangathon

A donor’s family legacy

Legacy donor, JoAnne Janzen, sits in a booth with mug in hand. — “I support MCC with all my heart,” reflects JoAnne Janzen. To honour the life-changing support her own mother received from MCC as a child, JoAnne has left MCC a gift in her will.

As a child, JoAnne Janzen’s mother was provided meals at an MCC soup kitchen in southern Russia (present-day Ukraine) in the 1920s. This personal family connection to MCC instilled a deep sense of gratitude in JoAnne and a commitment to support the organization.

To honour her family’s history, JoAnne has left a gift in her will for MCC. Through her thoughtful generosity, JoAnne will continue to make a difference beyond her lifetime, reaching people around the world with the same compassionate, practical help her mother received over a century ago.

Learn more about how you can leave MCC a gift in your will at mcc.org/legacy