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Seed Distribution
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May 29, 2024For the last 2 years, Wendy Silverman at the County Cooperative Extension Office in Christiansburg has allowed me to select seeds for vegetables grown in the Central Highlands of Haiti. She receives unsold seeds from Walmart, Home Depot, and 1 or 2 other places each fall. These donated seeds are made available to poor families with plots of land that can be gardened. The store managers do not want to have their donated seeds compete with their sale of seeds in the following spring, so my sending them to Haiti takes them out of any potential conflict with sales .The seeds are sent to Savanette, to be distributed by a friend to local people at our twin parishes, with gardens or farms suitable to growing vegetables In fall 2023, I sent via USPS 38 lb of seed packets to that friend in Savanette via Missionary Flights International, which flies to Pignon, 4 miles from Savanette. MFI is a Protestant-based organization that transports goods at a flat rate, so another friend, Pastor Russell Driver, allows me to use his organization (Gates of Hope Mission) in Florida as my cover to have the seeds flown there.I was sent photos of the results of these seeds being given to local farmers and gardeners to raise their own food and sell whatever surplus they have to earn an income. This is so critical now because the gangs have blocked food distribution from Port-au-Prince, and the Dominican Republic has restricted the export of food into Haiti. The seeds will now provide food for hundreds of families, many on the verge of starvation because of gang control of major roads..
