The Unite Food Program (UFP) is now consistently purchasing and processing an average of 120 tons of maize and rice each month. UFP’s social mission is to empower small-scale farmers across Tanzania with a fair market for their crops as well as to provide them with the Agro-Z hermetic grain bags for safe storage of their food items. Many of the small-scale farming families with whom UFP is working are the families of our Unite Scholars, who survive as subsistence farmers (relying 100% on the income they can make from selling the crops they hand cultivate on small plots of land around their homes).
Here, a quick look at one UFP farming family — the Bida family, who live and grow rice and maize in the Katavi district, northwestern Tanzania.
Pili, 21, the fifth of the Bida’s eight children, was first enrolled in our Unite Scholars Program in 2020. Pili is now a second-year nursing student at KCMC (Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center), one of the premier medical institutions in Tanzania. Prior to joining Unite, Pili had no hopes of continuing her education beyond lower-secondary, and she spent her days working in the rice fields alongside her parents and siblings.
PIli is currrently working at Maternity Africa's Kivulini Maternity Hospital in Arusha for a professional internship over her long school break between her first and second year of nursing school.
“It is difficult to imagine my life and my family's life without the presence of Unite. It was like a miracle which moved us from dark to light where dreams, ambition and life style changed. Ours is a very low income family. Prior to Unite, affording even the most basic needs was very challenging. Life was very difficult; we could only eat enough to be full, not to build our bodies. We as a family have been never seen such kind of love in action before. Unite has made us feel valued, loved, and respected, and our lives have been changed forever for the better.”
—Pili
Pili’s younger sister Elizabeth, 18, was admitted into our Unite Scholars Program in January 2024, and is now a fully-sponsored Form 5 student in A-Levels/higher secondary school. As part of her support from Unite, Elizabeth was awarded a grant to start a small food retail store in her village, which she worked until she left for school and is now being operated by her siblings. Their market is growing steadily and earning critical funds to help meet their family’s needs.
Elizabeth with Unite Founder Anne Wells, March 2024.
Bundala Bida, 25, was hired in 2022 to work as UFP’s field coordinator in Katavi. UFP has purchased more than 700kgs of rice and maize from Bundala himself (his family’s entire harvests available for sale). UFP’s fair-market purchases have empowered the family to grow their farm from two to three acres of purchased land and five additional acres of rented land. Additionally, the Bida’s have used their increased earnings to pay school fees for the children not sponsored by Unite as well as to pay for the critical needs such as food, medical care, advanced quality seeds for farming, etc.
As UFP field coordinator, Bundala has worked with more than 100 small-scale farmers to coordinate the sourcing of grains and payments, transport logistics, provision of the Agro-Z bags, and more. Bundala has used his income from UFP to buy and store hundreds of kilos of maize which he will sell over the coming months when food becomes scarce and prices rise. Bundala envisions growing this new food storage business (made possible through the use of the Agro-Z bags provided by Unite/UFP) to provide a critical service to local villagers. Using part of his earnings, Bundala recently opened his own savings account through the formal banking system with the support and guidance of Unite.
Bundala with Unite teammate Imani Faustine at UFP HQ in Dar es Salaam after the delivery of a large transport of rice and maize from Katavi, August 2024.
And lastly Lucy Bida, 22, is a beneficiary of Unite’s Warrior For Change Grant/Loan Program and Unite’s Blessing Program. Last spring, Lucy received funds to start and grow her own organic vegetable farm on her family’s expanding land. Her small enterprise is now providing nutritious food for herself and her family and creating a surplus to sell for added income. Lucy periodically receives infusions of small funds from Unite to purchase her vegetables for her to then give to villagers in her community who are living in dire need.
Lucy delivering food to an elderly man in her village as part of the Unite Blessing Campaign.
Unite has also purchased for the Bida family a bicycle (to help transport water, crops, and supplies from long distances), a solar panel for light after dark and power to charge cell phones, and beds for safe and comfortable sleep (before Unite the family slept on mats on the ground).
Unite teammates with members of the Bida family outside their rented home in Katavi during a home visit in April 2024. Click HERE to see a video of that visit.
UNITE FOOD PROGRAM: THE PROCESS
Through our field managers, including Bundala Bida, UFP partners with small-scale farming families across remote areas of Tanzania.
Maize, rice, ground nuts, and beans are purchased from the women (whenever possible) as UFP is committed to supporting those who will use the income to feed and educate the children.
Each small-scale farming family is awarded two 100-kg Agro-Z bags each harvest to use to: (1) hold back grains to feed their own families, and (2) store grains that can be sold later in the year when food prices skyrocket, creating a "bank" for future family needs. The Agro-Z hermetic grain bags prevent pest infestations and thus remove the need for chemical applications post-harvest.
Crops are then bagged and transported by hand, bike, and donkey to central locations on main roads where they are then loaded on the back of flatbed lorries to be transported hundreds if not thousands of miles away to UFP headquarters in Dar es Salaam on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Click HERE to see a video of the trucks unloading at UFP HQ.
Rice and maize is unloaded at UFP HQ and safely stored in the UFP containers and storage rooms before being transported to the mills...
where the grains are cleaned and processed...
...repackaged into UFP packaging...
... and finally hand-delivered to wholesale and retail customers across Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar.
Members of the Unite/UFP team at HQ in Dar es Salaam, June 2024.