Our 2021 COVID-19 Relief Plans

on January 19, 2021

In 2020, the pandemic brought new challenges to people facing hunger, as well as an increased level of food insecurity around the world. At Rise Against Hunger, we were committed to responding to the increased need, even with a reduced number of meal packaging events taking place. So, as the world began to feel the impacts of the pandemic last spring, we launched our COVID-19 Relief & Resilience Plan to ensure continued support for the people we serve.With the support of our Hunger Champions, we were able to impact over 1.39 million lives in 28 countries through our COVID-19 relief efforts last year. But the crisis is not over! The hunger crisis, which has perpetually worsened during the pandemic, is still causing severe challenges for people facing food insecurity around the world.Rise Against Hunger will continue to address hunger and contribute toward the relief and resilience of the children and families relying on our food assistance during this crisis. In 2021, we have updated our COVID-19 Relief Plan, which focuses on two key relief efforts this year:

Providing Grants for Local Food Procurement.

To help meet families’ basic needs while also boosting local economies, we will provide funds for local or regional procurement of food commodities to our impact partners. These funds will supply families with nutrient-rich emergency food baskets, including cooking oil, fresh fruits, vegetables, proteins and more.

Empowering Communities through Sustainable Agriculture Projects.

We will continue implementing our five Empowering Communities projects in Malawi, Mali, Senegal, South Sudan and Zimbabwe. These agricultural development projects build the capacity of farmers and increase their food production, incomes and resilience to crisis.Through these efforts, we seek to support 600,000 people facing hunger in 15 countries worldwide, including 325,000 students, over the next 12 months. We need your help as we work together to achieve this. Will you join us to make this plan possible? Donate to help us launch these critical efforts.

Strength, Stability And Hope

The gift that filled Nelly’s table.

“We were yielding very little, and the crops could not sustain us the whole year,” Nelly remembers. As a mother of seven and a farmer with two decades of experience, the stress of inconsistent yields was all-consuming. A poor harvest not only strained her family financially, but also limited their own meals to just two a day. Their story reflects that of many in their fishing and farming village near a lake in the Karonga district of northern Malawi. Here, heavy rainfall makes conventional farming methods nearly impossible. The entire village is, quite literally, saturated in food insecurity — a reality that leaves families struggling to survive season after season without a dependable source of nourishment.

In 2019, Nelly began participating in Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience, a sustainable agriculture project implemented by Rise Against Hunger in partnership with the Foundation for Community Support Services (FOCUS). The project works with 3,100 smallholder farmers in Malawi’s Karonga and Mzimba districts to strengthen food and nutrition security by improving production methods, nutrition practices and household income.

Just one year later, Nelly was ready to expand the variety of crops on her farm. What land once only produced maize began to flourish with sesame, cowpeas, rice and groundnuts during the rainy season (summer), as well as maize and vegetables during the dry season (winter). Through climate-smart agriculture training, she learned new techniques like manure making, pit planting and mulching, crop rotation and intercropping. Equipped with these tools, Nelly’s farm began to thrive.

After the 2023–2024 growing season, she sold enough produce to purchase an ox cart. Her harvests in 2024-2025 season yielded over 500 pounds of crops, including 22 bags of groundnuts, seven bags of maize, 12 tins of sesame and three bags of rice. With this surplus, she was able to invest in a motorbike, which she now uses to transport African doughnuts (mandasi) that she cooks and sells — creating yet another source of income for her family.

The transformation reaches far beyond her finances. Nelly now has the stability to provide for her husband and children. “I am able to eat different food types, pay school fees for my children and fulfill the visions that I have made with my family,” she beams. “I am now sleeping peacefully without any fears of food or paying school fees for the children.”

Her leadership has also grown. Today, Nelly serves as a leader in the Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience project, teaching other farmers in her district to adopt climate-resilient, labor-saving practices. By sharing her knowledge, she is multiplying her impact — empowering her neighbors to experience the same transformation she has achieved.

Across Nelly’s community, food and economic security are on the rise. Lombani, a government extension officer for the region, explains, “I can see the community is being transformed in the sense that in the area, there is food, income and nutrition security. Development is also happening at the household level.”

Nelly reflects on what it means to invest in holistic programs that address the root causes of hunger: “We are now healthy people. Children are going to school after eating their breakfast, having high yields and different types of crops due to conservation agriculture practices. With the support from the project, we have food, and we can access other food items from the market after selling our produce.”

This is the gift that fills: a future full of stability, strength and hope. It fills tables with food, families with security and communities with the resources to thrive. It’s an investment in futures rooted in resilience and hope.