Lead image for Kenyan expert wins Sh103 million grant to grow managu, misheveve in US.
Kenyan academic, Dr Truphena Choti’s passion for farming traditional African vegetables on American soil, has received a facelift after authorities boosted the venture with a $800,000 (Sh103 million) grant.
The money will go into her business venture that focuses on growing and distributing African vegetables such as kunde (pea leaves), managu (African nightshade), misheveve (pumpkin leaves), terere/mchicha (amaranthus) and mrenda (jute mallow) to a wide variety of consumers most of who are African diaspora in the US.
This week on Monday, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen formally presented a cheque to Dr Choti, confirming the official interest by American authorities to support her venture of boosting nutrition and safe food to American consumers.
Dr Choti, who has a legal background, developed a passion for healthy living and community wellness, promoting balanced nutrition as a centrepiece of her community work. Her community garden became a collection of familiar African foods, including okra, sweet potatoes and kale.
Her enterprise known as AfriThrive Community Food Center was inspired by interest by many African diaspora in her garden. It now serves some 20,000 people annually. She told the Nation that her background from Kenya also played a role in developing passion to grow foods she was familiar with in the suburb of Essex on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
For most times of the year, families access fresh, healthy and culturally familiar foods. The new money could also boost all-year cultivation, cold storage, food preparation space, nutrition education, Food as Medicine programmes and other community services.
“For us, food security is not just about giving people something to eat.
“We want families to have access to foods they know, foods they enjoy, and foods that remind them of home,” she told the Nation.