Growing up in Jamaica, Mary McLaughlin often ate breadfruit, which she describes as tasting like a bagel when it has been baked or roasted.
Today, McLaughlin, along with her husband, Mike, and a team of volunteers, is using that same breadfruit to combat hunger and environmental issues around the world through the Trees That Feed Foundation.
“I thought, ‘If we could get more people to eat food from trees, that would be a good thing,’” McLaughlin says. “’It would be helping the environment, and we would be able to produce more food for people who need a greater food supply.”
It’s that thinking that made the Trees That Feed Foundation our 2014 Philanthropy Awards winner in the Environment category.
The foundation’s mission is made up of three goals: plant trees to feed people in developing countries, create jobs and protect the environment.
First, the foundation provides trees with edible fruit and high yields, in addition to necessary equipment and training. Second, their Factory-in-a-Box gives tools that allow locals to produce nutritious, gluten-free breadfruit flour that can be sold or used. Third, the foundation helps farmers turn their fields into agro-forests and focus on trees that don’t require much use of fertilizers, insecticides and other chemicals.
Their efforts have made a lasting impact on countries around the world. In five years, Trees That Feed has planted more than 60,000 trees. Currently, the foundation is working on reforestation in Haiti and planting trees at every school in Jamaica, where the foundation is also working with a group to develop their own factory.
The work this organization is doing is vital, as illustrated by a recent call McLaughlin received from a Jamaican farmer.
“He was phoning not just to thank me, but he said, ‘You’ve given me trees. These trees are about to bear fruit. And this will change my life.’”
Trees That Feed By the Numbers
- 62,000 trees distributed
- 50 U.S. volunteers
- 1,200 schools partnered with; 600 schools supplied thus far
- 50 partnering organizations
- Cost of one tree: $15
- $200 will provide 400 breadfruit means to a school in Haiti
