TREES THAT FEED FOUNDATION
Planting fruit trees to feed people, create jobs and benefit the environment
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
We address several inter-related problems. First, hunger. In developing countries access to food is expensive and uncertain, due in part to the decline in agriculture. We donate fruit trees to smallholder farmers and community groups to alleviate hunger. Second, the environment is suffering from deforestation. Our nealry 200,000 fruit trees in countries like Haiti and the Bahamas help to address the problem. Third is the poor economy. Excess fruit can be sold as a cash crop by smallholder farmers. We also assist small business startups which helps to create jobs. Fourth, we believe we are also reducing forced migration by creating self-sufficient community groups.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Fruit Trees
Working in cooperation with the Government's Rural Agricultural Development Agency in Jamaica, Three Angels Childrens Relief in Haiti, and other partners in eighteen other countries. TTFF plants fruit trees, facilitates economic growth in developing nations, combats climate change, and facilitates educations in school systems. This accomplishes our mission to solve global problems of climate
change, hunger, poverty and lack of education.
Equipment
We supply basic equipment to set up a food processing facility; we call it the "Factory in a Box." It comprises a shredder, drying equipment, grinder, scale, packaging materials and various accessories.
Feeding People
TTFF donates trees and equipment to entrepreneurs and community groups to produce food products locally; this is preferred to sending imported food from abroad. Then we purchase the food products and redistribute to schools, orphanages and hospitals. We do this for 2 years to allow the groups to streamline their processes and build a customer base.
Education
We provide educational coloring books in four languages as well as trainings for farmers and schoolchildren
Where we work
External reviews

Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of trees planted
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Children and youth
Related Program
Fruit Trees
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Through December 2020, over 200,000 fruit trees of various types, mainly breadfruit, supplied to recipients in Haiti, Jamaica and 16 other countries. Cumulative totals.
Number of meals served or provided
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Feeding People
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We provide breadfruit flour, porridge mix, fritay mix, konparets and other nutritious foods to schools and orphanages in Haiti and Jamaica. Annual totals.
Number of books distributed
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Education
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
A new program to supply educational coloring books to young schoolchildren. Through December 2019, over 6,000 supplied. Now in English, Spanish, French, Haitian Creole, Indonesian, and Swahili.
Number of farmers given information about key markets
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Feeding People
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We hold educational seminars and cooking schools for farmers, chefs, processors, distributors, and community leaders. Somewhat less activity in 2020 due to the pandemic. Numbers are approximate.
Number of groups/individuals benefiting from tools/resources/education materials provided
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Equipment
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We donate "Factory in a Box" kits (complete or partial) to community groups or entrepreneurs to process fruit into post-harvest products. Ultimately they will become self-sufficient businesses.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
We aim to plant 1,000,000 trees within 10 years. A million trees will feed 4 million people sustainably. We intend to increase food production from trees by an order of magnitude and in the process feed hungry people, help to create jobs, and benefit the environment. We are not just delivering food, we are creating food independence, we provide people in developing countries with the ability to feed themselves and create businesses.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our operating model is extremely simple and easy to understand. We raise funding mainly in the US and Canada; we purchase fruit producing trees in the US, Germany, Jamaica, Haiti, Costa Rica and now Kenya. We deliver those trees through partnering organizations to individual farmers, co-operatives and a small number of commercial organizations. We work with approximately 50 partner organizations to leverage our already extensive network of contacts at senior levels of government, churches, service clubs and other NGOs.
In addition to planting trees we run other programs specifically intended to keep the trees alive and to increase their value. So for example we run training seminars in local countries, teaching how to propagate, plant and care for fruit trees. We help entrepreneurs to start small businesses by supplying them with food processing equipment. And we buy their processed food product to get them established. And we distribute the food to schools and orphanages. We also provide the schools and orphanages with educational coloring books that teach the value of fruit trees.
We are running two research programs, one into the productivity (abundance and timing) of breadfruit bearing, and a second one, locating farms and breadfruit orchards. We are mapping those locations to facilitate sale and purchase of breadfruit in commercially viable quantities.
These programs are separate but highly integrated, all with the strategy of keeping the trees alive and productive.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Currently we're a volunteer organization with four part time paid staff. We rely on a group of volunteers in the US and also Haiti and Jamaica. We draw great strength from our partners, including the Government of Jamaica, National Tropical Botanic Garden and Three Angels Children's Relief, to name just a few. They provide funding or support in kind that allows us to continue our work at extremely low overhead cost. The founders together work approximately 1.5 FTEs in our office location. We use part time staff in the US, Jamaica, Haiti and Kenya. We use 400 sq.ft. of office space, provided to us at nominal cost by a generous landlord, Karl Lohre Painting Company. We have technology support provided by the founders. Our real strength is our passion and our partner organizations.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
To date we have planted over 240,000 trees, mainly breadfruit but also cashew, mango and other food producing fruit trees. We've also delivered 24 kits to produce post-harvest products such as breadfruit flour. We've held numerous in person and online seminars to bring together agronomy experts, academics, farmers, private business, and political leaders in Haiti and Jamaica. We've received dozens of thank you letters, everyone from Government organizations to individual farmers, acknowledging the help we're giving them. We are delighted to report that our successes are scalable from the individual farmer level up to commercial sized food processing business.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
We serve developing nations in the Caribbean, Africa, and South America. We donate trees to those who request trees to start businesses or supply schools and families with food.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Suggestion box/email,
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
We do not typically do emergency relief, but in response to the Haiti earthquake, we shifted our efforts to supplying temporary aid relief
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
We don’t share the feedback we collect,
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.),
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback,
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
TREES THAT FEED FOUNDATION
Board of directorsas of 03/21/2022
Mary McLaughlin
S Michael McLaughlin
Secretary-Treasurer
Nyree Zerega
Northwestern University
Michael Renetkzy
Locke Lord LLP
Mary L McLaughlin
Chair
Gabriel Osson
Ken Banks
Joseph Matara
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
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