Region: Latin America and the Caribbean
This initiative is giving local women an employment opportunity in a women’s cooperative. The women produce nutritional products to be readily available to low-income or undernourished community members. The area has long struggled with poverty and lack of adequate social services, along with environmental degradation, as poor farmers are challenged to earn a living and feed their families from increasingly depleted soils. The cooperative also partners with local community agriculture groups, to package milk-based nutritional products that are then distributed to malnourished children and pregnant women. Additionally, to supplement income, the women also produce specialty items, such as canned fruits and marmalades, for potential export.