To our dear loyal OnePlate tribe, Why do we do what we do? To show these children that they are loved.
I have recently come back from a beautiful and inspirational trip to Kenya. By far the greatest inspiration and highlight was meeting the treasures of Africa… our little heroes. The children. We honour and thank them for teaching us what love and hope is all about!
To see our OnePlate projects flourishing was great, but to meet the children who are thriving was extraordinary!! These children, who were once living on the streets, abandoned and orphaned, are now in a children’s village with a future full of hope and a present filled with love.
Meanwhile, in a town not so far away we visited a government-run rescue centre where 150 orphans and abandoned children live. From infants to teens, these children wait in limbo at this rescue centre for the destination of their lives to be determined.
As I sat in this dim rescue centre a two-year-old boy came up to me to be hugged. He didn’t let go. A little boy looking for love, with an uncertain future, not knowing home. When we left he cried and it was hard for me to hold back my tears. It was in that moment that I remembered my why… why OnePlate exists. Five years ago I was at a leadership conference in London and I will never forget the speaker on stage as she spoke of the 153 million orphans around the world. She said, “How will these children know that they are loved?” Those words have never left me. As I hugged that little boy in the rescue centre, I understood that this is why OnePlate exists…. to show these children that they are loved. OnePlate plays one small part in these children’s lives and that is through food. It is food that is the beginning for so many of them who have had nothing and that is why our focus is on sustainable food security.
So then we go back to the children’s village where hundreds of children are thriving and flourishing. The sustainable food projects not only feed them but provide an income stream to make this children’s village self-sufficient. And this is what sustainability is all about!!
Imagine if we could expand our sustainable farms and food security projects to not only assist these children’s villages to develop and grow but to create more children’s homes. It would not only mean that more children would have a home, be fed and educated but these children’s villages could scale, multiple and grow to impact the lives of thousands of children in order to break the poverty cycle. This is long-term impact that will create sustainable change for generations to come.
This journey to Kenya has planted a seed in our hearts with a renewed vision to scale OnePlate to impact the lives of many more children in the greatest of need. We want to take you, our tribe, on this journey with us because we know that together we can make a big difference to show these children that they are loved.
With gratitude,
Thérèse
