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Global HQ Office on April 20, 2026

We served 7,389,552 people across 41 countries last year — and this wouldn’t have been possible without your support! Check out our 2025 impact results in this blog.

on March 11, 2026
  • By Stone Powell-McDavitt
on March 5, 2026
on February 23, 2026

Categories:

The Latest Stories Of Impact

Global HQ Office
on June 4, 2019
At the young age of 19, Brenda becomes the owner of a stationery store in her home country after being selected as the winner of the USAID Microenterprise Program. Despite her dedication to her job as an entrepren
Global HQ Office
on May 30, 2019
Narovantsoa, a 12-year-old boy, lives with his teacher, Yvonne, in the small town of Soamanandrariny, Madagascar. On average, households in Somanandrainy consist of six people, and many depend on an income of less
Global HQ Office
on May 29, 2019
Kicking off this year’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Oscar Mayer and Roush Fenway Racing teamed up to package Rise Against Hunger meals in Charlotte, NC. Together, the volunteers packaged over 10,0
Global HQ Office
on May 22, 2019
Traditionally, birthday celebrations bring balloons, a big cake and surprising gifts. For 13-year-old Gian and 9-year-old Gianina, their birthdays are another chance to celebrate an annual fundraiser to give back
Global HQ Office
on May 10, 2019
At only 15 years old, Memory carries herself with confidence and zeal as an exceptional student despite her difficult circumstances growing up in Zambia. Living in a rural area in the capital city of Lusaka, she s
Global HQ Office
on May 7, 2019
On National Teacher Appreciation Day, we are celebrating teachers around the world whose hard work and impact extend far beyond the boundaries of the classroom. For Mmapula Letswalo, a South African leader in educ

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.