I love many things — but two that top the list are Arkansan’s who make a difference and preparing and eating healthy tasty food!  My news feed produced an article on Donne Smith, former CEO of Tyson Foods who is building chicken production capacity in Rwanda as a way to provide nutrition and income to a poverty-stricken region of Masanze.  The story is from The Salt: What’s On Your Plate a NPR Blog.  I found many interesting articles on food, production and economics.  Examples include if we all ate enough fruit and vegetables, would there be a shortage? Or can we save kelp forests in California by developing tasty dishes for purple sea urchins? Or will a no-deal Brexit destroy the Irish dairy industry? It seems I am not the only one who ‘sees’ economics when I think food!  As I read this particular post about chicken production in Rwanda, I discovered multiple Arkansas connections to this tiny African country that was devastated by genocide in 1990.  Additionally, I discovered connections to other African and developing countries around the globe.  The information could be used in a entrepreneurship, Arkansas history, geography, or family and consumer science classes.  Educators in programs such as EAST can share the economic development or social enterprise connections.

Like Kojo in the children’s book One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference, Donnie Smith is introducing chicken production to poor subsistence farmers in Rwanda.  Unlike Kojo, who’s financing came from a micro-loan, Smith has his own foundation to fund the project, the African Sustainable Agriculture Project.  Smith, USAID and University of Tennessee are behind this project known as Feed the Future Tworore Inkoko, Twunguke which means “Let’s raise chickens and make a profit.”  An earlier project supported by the Smith Foundation is One Egg, a non-profit which provide eggs for protein to school children in eleven less developed countries.  I find it very interesting how Smith uses what he knows from his corporate days, chicken production, to make a difference.

As in any situation where you are getting started, they have met with obstacles.  Rwandan farmers are more likely to own goats than chickens.  So they had to be taught to raise and eat chickens.  Additionally, the physical and economic infrastructure is lacking.  Few locals eat chickens so they are developing markets by serving hotels and restaurants in Kigali or exporting to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  “Africa’s just hard,” Smith says. It lacks the energy supply, roads, railways, banks and business climate that helped Tyson grow into a $25 billion company on his watch. Due to these challenges, it will cost about $2300 per farmer to reach the targeted 750 farm families with small chicken coops. The project will provide development understandings and new data in the debate about the role of livestock in helping the world’s extreme poor.  Microsoft-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates wrote a post about the benefits of chickens to the world’s poor.  Gates gave 1000 chickens to poor Africans through Heifer International, a non-profit headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.  To teach your students about Heifer and their cornerstone of passing on the gift, use the children’s book Beatrice’s Goat about Beatrice Biira from Uganda who received a Heifer goat and eventually attended the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Success stories include Twizerimana Francois, a 47-year-old father of seven who uses his earnings to pay for his children’s school fees and supplies just as Beatrice did in the book referenced above.  He uses manure to fertilize his vegetable garden just as Maria Luz from Honduras was taught to do in the children’s book The Good Garden: How One Family Went from Hunger to Enough. A thirty-four year old mother is saving to buy a calf that will provide milk and nutrition to her family as in Beatrice’s Goat.  Use the Beatrice story and this lesson from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank to teach your students about saving goals and money.

Another Arkansas company with Rwandan connections is Westrock Coffee Company.  Westrock, represented by the Rwandan elephant logo, was founded by Scott and Joe Ford, former Alltel executives, to provide employment for the women who survived the genocide and were head of households.  The Westrock team, like Donnie Smith, did a lot of learning as they worked to develop a public/ private partnership to help the poor.  They now provide evening meals for their workers; microloans for the families’ school fees; farming and business education to improve the coffee sold to them.  Use their website to teach the coffee production process as well at to share their impact.  Their coffee slogan is ‘Trace Kindness to Your Cup’ through ethically sourced coffee providing real change to farmers worldwide through every cup of great-tasting coffee. If you haven’t tried Westrock coffee, you have missed a treat and an opportunity to make a difference through your dollar vote!

Other Arkansas companies or non-profits have connections to Rwanda.  Dale Dawson, former head of investment banking at Steven’s Inc.founded Bridge2Rwanda which brings students to the U.S. to attend college.  Benefits to studying higher education in the U.S. are evidenced in Twenty-Two Cents: Muhammad Yunus and the Village Bank about the founder of Grameen Bank, micro-loans, and social enterprise.  Grameen Bank used to provide loans to Arkansans.  Yunus is a Nobel Laureate as is Wangari Maathai, the founder of the Green Belt Movement and author of many books.  Wangari also became a change agent after studies in the U.S. as told in one of the four children’s books about this Kenyan. So Bridge2Rwanda is likely sowing valuable seeds. As educators, you can sow seeds by introducing students to these remarkable change agents.

Additional Arkansas companies or non-profits that serve Africa include 2ndMilk, founded by Jason Carney to provide formula to children in African and other developing countries who need nutrition while infants. Kyya Chocolate founder, Rick Boosey, wanted to help orphans in Uganda by building chicken houses as a mission project.  When searching for a more sustainable way to help, Rick, with help from his wife Cindy and his four adopted daughters, founded Kyya Chocolate.  By simplifying the supply chain and developing relationships directly with small farmers, Kyya pays a sustainable wage for the cacao beans and sells a quality bar of chocolate to appreciative customers!  Anna Taylor, a 2013 apparel studies graduate of the University of Arkansas is another Arkansan who created a business to help solve poverty in Africa.  Her business, Judith and James, uses African fabrics and workers to produce clothing and accessories demanded by the world fashion industry.  Judith was the first unemployed seamstress hired by Anna.  James was the verse that that drives her.  Anna’s work was featured in a documentary, Little Stones.  More on Anna’s story later!