Introducing Operation Chakula: Buying From the Poor to Feed the Poor

THE CHALLENGE

Unite is educating some of the best and brightest teenagers and young adults in Tanzania. We are ensuring their quality A-level educations as well as providing them advanced international mentorship; leadership, life-skills, business, and soft-skills of professionalism trainings; environmental education programming; access to the arts, music, and all kinds of creative endeavors and advanced STEM trainings; and so much more. 

However, since most of our Unite Scholars come from extremely impoverished families who eke out meager livings as small-scale farmers, when our Unite Scholars return to their homes over school holidays they are often faced with the intense stress of extreme poverty, food shortages, and hunger. 

UNITE’S RESPONSE

To address this challenge, in partnership with Tanzanian business-woman Upendo Kiondo and environmental scientist Clara Ngowi, we are launching a new program called Unite Operation Chakula (“chakula” means “food” in Kiswahili). Here is how it works:

1. Our team purchases maize, rice, beans, and ground nuts from our Unite Scholars and their families as well as from other small-scale farmers in need across Tanzania to provide them a market and income;

2. We hold the harvest in air-tight, pest-resistant 150kgs-AgroZ bags in secure central locations (the food can be held safely in these bags for months and even years);
   3. Our team repackages the food supplies into smaller-sized quantities and sells the product at affordable retail prices to communities in need.

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   We are buying from the poor during harvest time, using advanced technology to safely store and protect the food,
   and re-selling food to those in need. 

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Click on the hyperlinks below to see the reality of life for small-scale farmers in Tanzania:

Unite Scholar Loyce shows us the work of harvesting rice by hand.

Unite Scholar Loyce shows us how she cleans and packages her rice. 

Unite Scholar Maria John shows us how she harvests ground nuts.

Unite Scholar Maria John shows us how she harvests maize.

Unite Scholar Maria John shows us her family eating “ugali” (a staple meal for Tanzanians made from maize/corn flour).

To learn more about Unite’s Operation Chakula, email anne@uniteafricafoundation.org.
To make a tax-deductible donation in support of our work, click HERE.

May 2021 bring peace, health, joy, nourishment, and prosperity for all.