09172014Wed
Last updateFri, 12 Sep 2014 1pm

Tea leaves that make a difference for women in San Juan Cosala & the rest of the world

San Juan Cosala’s 20-year-old Operation Feed program was designed to deliver essential food to the most challenged of the town’s residents. This year it has expanded to help residents learn to grow food and, in time, to make money to ease the family situation.

This spring, Operation Feed volunteers helped six San Juan Cosalá women plant 80 three-foot moringa trees and care for them, as well as  plant moringa seeds.

When a summer storm destroyed some the trees, the Moringa Madres were undaunted. They had seedlings large enough to be transplanted as replacements. By late summer, the first crop of leaves, nearly two kilos of tea, was sent to Nashville where it was combined with the efforts of five women’s social enterprises in three countries to create a Tea Survival Kit to be sold in a number of U.S. outlets, including 70 Whole Food stores in the southeastern states.

When Fiona Prine, director of development of the Nashville-based international Shared Trade organization, visited Lake Chapala early this month to meet the Moringa Madres, she explained how the program works.

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