Alleviating world hunger has been the mission of many charitable organisations for decades. It’s certainly not a new issue. It does, however, require new thinking.
While many relief organisations provide fantastic short-term relief in the form of food, water, supplies etc., it’s simply not sustainable. To really have a chance at breaking the poverty cycle, we need to think more long-term.
The phrase “give and man a fish and feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime” can be traced right back to the 1800s, but it couldn’t be a more fitting way to sum up our 21st-century philosophy at OnePlate.
Our goal is to provide and implement innovative food solutions for those in need. We’re about building long-term, sustainable food projects that will nourish impoverished communities for decades not days, and bring hope and fulfilment to those more conditioned to hopelessness and despair.
Harvesting food isn’t a new concept either. However, our relationships with leading agricultural scientists and innovators in sustainability allow us to provide the latest in technology, resources and knowledge to our partners on the ground overseas, to ensure these projects continue to bear fruit (pun intended).
Sustainable farms not only generate food, they also create jobs and industry, such as restaurants, cooking classes and other entrepreneurial endeavours. They also teach younger generations life-long skills in patience, leadership and responsibility, giving them confidence, a sense of achievement and an outlook on life that extends beyond the current day, week or even month.
More than anything, though, it gives communities (and children in particular) a future… a future of hope. It is in these gardens that they encounter nature and they begin to dream, and it’s in this dream that hope and restoration begin to grow in their hearts, setting them on the path to healing and long-term prosperity.