Growing Gardens, Feeding Minds

Growing Gardens, Feeding Minds is our newest project, which feeds a nutritious hot lunch every day to primary school children who would otherwise not necessarily have food in their bellies. A vegetable garden on the school grounds, designed to teach gardening to the children, supplements the meals of green grams and ugali or chapatis.

The Africa Inland Church in Kisumu has founded and helped fund dozens of primary and secondary schools in western Kenya. Many of the students are very poor, living with one parent, a grandparent, or even no parents. Kenya’s government provides buildings, equipment, and teachers, but school children’s families must find the funds for uniforms, school supplies, and meals.

In 2024 we became aware that the students were interested in growing gardens for food, but few of them could afford the negligible $2/week cost to eat noon meals at the schools. Many were walking home in the noonday sun only to find a drink of water, nothing to eat. Education provides a path to success, yet hungry growing bodies must be fed in order to remain in school, learn, and thrive.

The problem is daunting. Yet in 2025 we received a grant from the Power of One in Indianapolis to jumpstart a pilot program at a single school, Renja Primary School, which educates 650 pre-kindergarten through 8th grade students. In 2026 we received this grant again as well as a large Presbyterian Women Thank Offering grant to expand the program to other schools. Learn more in this short video…

We Need Your Help

For $4000 we can build, fence, and bring water to a school garden and build a kitchen with a low-smoke stove, investing permanently in lunch for a new primary school. Then, for only $12, we can supply the dry goods and supplies to feed a single child for a year. Please consider a gift to help make Growing Gardens, Feeding Minds a reality for our children. Or consider asking your congregation to adopt an entire classroom for multiple years.

We have begun a “Lunch and Learn” program for congregations. If you would like, we will find a way to come to your church, lead your kitchen crew in cooking a Kenyan meal for members like the one our school children enjoy every day, teach about hunger and hunger solutions we are pursuing in the Kisumu area, and provide opportunities to join us and sponsor kids. Contact Trisha Tull to learn more.

How to Give