2025: Celebrating Our Impact
- samanthakoches
- Jan 1
- 2 min read
As 2025 comes to a close, we are filled with gratitude for the entire Nourish All family -- our team, local partners, beneficiaries, donors, and friends. Reflecting on the year, Nourish All is incredibly proud of our work, and we know none of it would have been possible without our community. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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Nourish All's mission since Day 1 (way back on a 2021 summer's day!) is to improve food security and livelihoods for vulnerable communities. Over the years, we have worked in some very challenging areas - where needs are complex, urgency is real, and impact goes beyond numbers. No matter the difficulties along the way, we have strove to do exactly that.
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In 2025, our work focused on mushrooms, vegetable gardening, value addition, and mentorship. We deepened partnerships in Uganda and Kenya, strengthened our local teams, hosted interns from Columbia University, and created new relationships. We supported widows, refugees, students, and farmers. We taught everything from growing mushrooms in a bucket to calculating cost-benefit analyses. We listened to local leaders, showed up, and built practical solutions together to help their communities.
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This year, Nourish All:
Trained 275 people on mushrooms, gardening, and value addition
Created 450+ mushroom gardens Â
Planted 60+ vegetable gardens Â
Launched a widows-owned business that produced 150lbs of mushrooms and sold 4 different products Â
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As we look ahead, we are committed to serving communities and uplifting lives. Thank you to everyone who has stood by us as we continue to grow.
Snapshots from 2025
Widows Winning with Mushrooms
Scaling up production in Kakuma Refugee Camp
Sowing Seeds with New Partners
Nourish All entered a new community this year -Nyumanzi Refugee Settlement - in the extremely arid northern Uganda. We launched a partnership with Dongriin Foundation, a refugee-led organization based in the camp. Together, we empowered 22 people with skills, seeds, and tools to grow their own food. Although the dry climate was challenging, we adapted and helped all 22 individuals successfully reap harvests cowpeas, greens, and okra in their backyards!
A Peak into 2026
Feeding Widows from their Own Backyard
Led by Nourish All's Kenya team, we are excited to launch an agriculture program supporting the Wives of Kings widows group. To complement their mushroom agribusiness, we'll train and help 40 widows set up gardens -- complete with seeds, tools, and bokashi (an amazing compost). Bonus: their spent mushroom gardens are a wonderful soil booster!
Alumni Award from Columbia University
Nourish All is being honored by Columbia University! Founder Samantha Koches has been selected for the 2026 Alumni Innovator Award. She will graciously receive and speak at the Tamer Institute's Annual Reception this upcoming February in New York. The reception will be a celebration of the Tamer Fund's 10 years of supporting social impact ventures.