History

Haiti Food System Alliance

In the spring of 2015, shielded by a big tent on a grassy field, members of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Haiti Peer Learning Network “Agricultural Strategies Working Group” discussed what they could do to lead change when it comes to promoting clean and sustainable agricultural practices among Haiti’s farming communities.

This meeting was one of the first to seed the formalization of the Haiti Food System Alliance. The participants realized that due to a combination of economic strife as well as cultural mores, farming had become both economically untenable and stigmatized as “peasant” work that was generally seen to be undesirable to the larger population. As a result, little of the food Haitians needed was actually grown in Haiti, with heavy reliance on importing agricultural staples like rice from neighboring Dominican Republic. As they worked to define issues and brainstorm potential challenges to address, participants took some inspiration from biblical Scripture, specifically Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge … ”

The group defined the issue at hand as “the actions to produce enough food and goods for the Haitian society, while protecting the environment.” They identified the best means to accomplish this goal was though “practical knowledge sharing,” as well as leadership reinforcement and increased dissemination of innovation, most notably to connect academic and research initiatives to agricultural practice. Many years and many collaborations, later, the HFSA is delivering sector-level investment and impact to transform Haiti’s agricultural sector.

The Haiti Peer Learning Network was founded in 2013. As core contributors since the very beginning, the HFSA member organizations see their collaboration as the direct result of the strategic coalition building that the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has invested in for over a decade, and that is building such great momentum, today.

2014

Partnership with AZA and ZA

Acceso launched in partnership with AZA and ZA in the Central Plateau to support the production of Nourimanba, a fortified peanut butter for treating malnourished children.

2015

Haiti Peer Learning Network (HPLN)

A community of W.K. Kellogg Foundation grantees and partners across sectors (many of which would end up being future Alliance members) called The Haiti Peer Learning Network (HPLN) convened in Port-au-Prince to map out an income-generation ecosystem they could develop and strengthen together, along with others in their communities.

2015-2020

Collaboration

Future Alliance members organically collaborated on dozens of occasions - running locally sourced feeding programs, operating seed banks, sharing best agricultural practices, creating new export products and researching new seed and innovations.

Spring of 2021

Creation

W.K. Kellogg Foundation hosts a series of HPLN conferences with Alliance members to learn from each other's models, and see how they can work together to find a better way to uplift rural Haitians. Following these conferences, Alliance members decide to formalize into the ‘Haiti Food Systems Alliance (HFSA)’, with the goal to improve the productivity and incomes of tens of thousands of farmers.

Summer of 2021

7.2 Earthquake

On August 14, the South of Haiti is hit with a devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake that left over 500,000 people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. HFSA immediately responds by working together to pair hospitals and community organizations with local production, thus helping local farmers and food systems workers provide local solutions.

Spring 2022

Launch of the HFSA

Formal launch of the HFSA in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.