2024: Our Best Year Yet

Looking back on 2024, we are filled with gratitude for our achievements, partnerships, and supportive community. Nourish All is incredibly proud of our hard work, improving food security and livelihoods for vulnerable communities. Working graciously alongside our local partners, we positively impacted hundreds of women, youth, and refugees in East Africa - especially through mushrooms.

Our impact lies in the strength of our local partners. Special thank you to:

Hodari Foundation, Rwamwanja Rural Foundation, Farming and Health Education, Learning Permaculture for Society and Development, Trees that Feed Foundation, Kamya Musigire, TriTrees, Kijana, JUA Technologies, Mushroom Kenya, and our Kenya team.

We couldn't have done it without you -- our supporters. 

Thank you to all who offered financial support, time, talent, and encouragement that truly enabled us to change lives. A heartfelt thank you to our most dedicated donors: The Koches Family Foundation, Peter Cretella, and Ellen Koches. Deep gratitude to our advisors: Board Members (Jessica Sun and Lesley Brindle) and Columbia Business School Pangea team. And special thank you to: Trees that Feed Foundation, DTU SkyLab, UNHCR, and WFP.

Read on for some of our favorite highlights of 2024, and plans for 2025! 

OUR 2024 IMPACT

OUR 2024 HIGHLIGHTS

Launched groundbreaking refugee-led laboratory

Nourish All is a founding member of the Refugee Mushroom Growers Cooperative (with Hodari Foundation and RRF), which won the World Food Program's IGNITE Food Systems Challenge Uganda in September 2023. We worked tirelessly through 2024 to successfully achieve our project goals and in October, we marked completion of this 1-year program. Together, we trained 100 refugees on mushroom farming, built 4 farms, and increased production and sales of existing refugee-owned mushroom farms. We also developed a new nutritious mushroom beverage to be tested in Kyaka II Refugee Settlement, after participating in an incredible 2-week mentorship program at the renowned DTU SkyLab in Denmark.

Our most exciting achievement was launching a groundbreaking mushroom laboratory within Kyaka II Refugee Settlement in Uganda. Owned and operated by Hodari Foundation, the lab produces grain spawn ("seeds"), the most critical input for mushroom farming. This lab provides better quality, affordable spawn to the refugee-owned mushroom farms, and generates revenue through sales to other local farmers. Nourish All led in the design, equipping, and project management, as well as technical training on spawn production. We also supported improvements to RRF's lab in Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement -- making these two labs the only refugee-based labs across the country, and likely even the region.

Pioneered mushrooms in Kakuma Refugee Camp

Building off success in Uganda, Nourish All led a pilot to test the viability of mushrooms for food security and income in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. We partnered with two refugee-led organizations (LPSD and FHE) in the arid, poverty-stricken region hosting over 200,000 refugees. We trained 50 farmers, built two production units, installed one water well, and supplied enough materials for two crop cycles, expected to yield 400kg of mushrooms.

The pilot was a great success, with UNHCR claiming it was the first-ever recorded mushrooms grown in Kakuma. LPSD and FHE reaped their first harvest in August and have since continued production, enjoying fresh mushrooms to eat and sell in the local market. We are proud to have established refugee-owned agribusinesses that will build long-term resilience. At scale, each farmer has the potential to earn $15 per month – over 3x WFP’s cash assistance.

Established Regional Team focused on rural Kenya

We proudly hired our first official regional team!  Our Kenya Programs team pioneers Nourish All mushroom and permaculture activities in western Kenya, focused on widows and youth. In 2024 we trained 40 widows, 20 youth, and 20 community leaders on low-tech mushroom production; planted over 100 mushroom "bucket" farms; led cooking demonstrations; tested porridge recipes; and preserved dried mushrooms for the Wives of Kings widows group.    

Our team is led by William Otieno, an agribusiness graduate and alumni from Nourish All's 2023 permaculture training; joined by Maureen Atieno (also Nourish All training alum and community leader), Vincent Ouma (young agri-preneur), and Mercy Akinyi (farmer and widow).

Advised and Awarded $25K by Columbia University

In Spring of 2024, Nourish All participated in Columbia Business School's Pangea Advisors program. Pangea matches nonprofits with MBA student teams for pro-bono consulting. Our student team developed a strategic plan and sustainable financing plan, including future operating model options. In May, Nourish All hosted the team in Uganda, including a visit to Kyaka II Refugee Settlement.

In Fall of 2024, Nourish All applied to Columbia's Tamer Fund for Social Ventures. After weeks of pitching and due diligence, Nourish All was one of three ventures selected for a $25,000 grant. We are so grateful to the Tamer Fund and are eager to implement to grant this year!

*LOOKING AHEAD TO 2025*