Working with 800 Kenyan farmers Farm to Feed (FTF) is helping provide a ready market for imperfect and surplus produce that would otherwise go to waste helping raise the farmers’ incomes by 41 per cent.
Founded in April 2020 as a COVID-19 food relief effort buying imperfect crops at risk of going to waste and donating them to vulnerable food-insecure communities at the height of the pandemic, today the company delivers up to 15,000 kgs of fresh food each week.
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“We realized that the problem of food loss was only exacerbated by the pandemic but has been an ever-present for Kenyan farmers,” said company co-founded Claire Van Enk.
According to Slow Food Kenya, 40 per cent of Kenya’s fruits and vegetables are lost from farm to table because of poor handling and storage and crucially– failure to meet proper cosmetic standards.
FTF offtakes this aesthetically unappealing farm produce that is too small/ big, or odd-shaped and after it has been cleared for quality checks sells it to customers for below market prices. This improves access to affordable nutritious foods.
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For farmers, they are assured of full harvest offtake– whether their fruits or vegetables are odd-shaped, surplus, or regular grade– and earn money for produce that would otherwise not have been sold. They are also paid immediately after their produce is sold, improving their businesses’ cash flow.
Farm produce from farmers across Kenya is sorted and graded at the company’s Kasarani warehouse for distribution to 40 buyers.
