Giving Back

On a trip to Malawi in 2004, Linda and Dale Bolton were blown away by the fact that there were an estimated 34 million orphans in Africa. In response, they started a not-for-profit and committed to donating 100% of their company’s profits.

  • We first realized the need in Malawi in 2004.

    It was at an orphanage we’d helped build. The children were loved, protected, educated, immunized.

    But with all the costs, there was only enough to feed them a diet of ugali – the equivalent of white cornmeal. They could never thrive and fight life-threatening diseases on such limited nutrients.

    Yet all around the orphanage was uncultivated land and the perfect conditions for growing. With the right knowledge and simple tools, we knew that orphanage could grow life-giving, disease-fighting foods without the limitations of cost.

    We set out to find a way and created a not-for-profit, then called Organics 4 Orphans.

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    Getting our hands deep in the soil in Africa, learning from local biointensive agriculture experts, we developed research-based methods for growing the most nutritious food, organically — almost anywhere and at the lowest cost.

    We layered in a model for holistic health that includes in-depth education on nutrition, cultivation and use of natural medicinal plants.

    But knowledge only matters if it can be shared — and we realized that what’s needed is a movement for growing health. We learned how to teach people to teach others, so health changes can ripple out across communities, countries, continents.