Our Model
Well of Plenty | Foundations to flourishing
1 Foundations
We base each garden around churches in communities, identifying and supporting local pastors who are able to lead the program. If the church doesn't already have land to farm, we will support by purchasing land that can be turned into a community demonstration garden.
2 Infrastructure
Next we build the core infrastructure necessary to run a community demonstration garden, this is where the majority of your financial support is invested. We drill wells, set up solar powered pumping systems, tank towers, install storage tanks and drip irrigation equipment. Further investing in the local economy, we take the time to source parts from suppliers within the country. Excluding a few specialized parts, the set-up is now fulfilled by local businesses and trades and managed by Well of Plenty.
3 Knowledge transfer
We spend 3 months training local community leaders in drip irrigation farming technology and agricultural methods so that they can use the technology and train others to use it. In this time period the first harvest will be ready and since our system is a continuous cropping method practicing intercropping and staggered planting times it provides an ongoing harvest through the year, after just 3 months.
4 Self-sufficiency
Once trained on the community demonstration garden, farmers take their new found knowledge and skills to their home gardens, equipped with a 22L pail kit and drip irrigation system, they start a new life of food security. They have autonomy over how they would like to use their outputs, on average a third of the food they grow is for themselves and two thirds are often sold to generate income. The money can be used to buy animals, which provide meat as well as manure, for seeds, to invest in more irrigation equipment or pay for children's schooling.
We support the gardens and communities ongoing, and continue to introduce additional growth opportunities as the gardens mature.
Join the Well of Plenty mission
If you'd like to join us in prayer or in person during our next trip to Malawi, head to our
Get Involved page.
Our History
2019
Following a divine encounter at an Elisha Revolution crusade in Malawi's capital Lilongwe, Bishop Safari posed a question that led to impact beyond imagination. The Canadian business leader and our soon-to-be founder Doug, was asked what did their nation have to learn, and what do they have to do, to bring a Malawi out of food and economic poverty.
A few months later, a return flight to Malawi was booked and boarded with a suitcase full of drip irrigation parts. Critical to the project's success was a locally based business leader with skills, passion and vision. Doug was introduced to Moses, a computer science graduate with a masters in Ai, and himself a founder of an innovative social-enterprise. Together the duo developed an action plan, broke ground drilling the first well and prepared the land, and here, in a rural farming community, the first training and demonstration garden had taken root.
Introducing this system to the hard-working farmers proved to be truly life changing. The community experienced yields far beyond any other year, growing a great variety of produce they had not seen grown in their land before. These transformational outputs offered much-needed nutrition, while creating a surplus that could be used for income.
2020
Following this success, in December 2020 The Well of Plenty ran a campaign to sponsor individual families through local churches. The $400 sponsorship purchased starter-kits for families to implement the system on their own land. Overwhelmed with gratitude, the recipients pooled and sold their surplus produce to raise money for further kits for the community.
2021 - 2023
The following years have seen great growth, with additional demonstration community gardens in bloom and a great number trained in novel farming techniques underpinned by drip irrigation. To further scale the potential, we have partnered with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Malawi. Alongside their ministry training, each pastor takes part in the on-site garden, being taught how to grow healthy organic crops together with farm-to-table business strategies. When they graduate, the pastors return to their home communities across the breadth of the nation, ready to change lives.
In this time period we also coached the launch of our partner company, Fruitful Mart, a central distributor for farmer groups. Together we have the volume of produce to supply to high-value, high-return buyers such as hotels and restaurants. From our farmers through distribution to accounts, all receive a good, fair wage.
2021 - 2023
Apologetics Canada joined us on one of our trips, filming for their project, 'A Theology of Technology'.
For 10 days their President, Creative Director and Film Maker, together with a group of enthusiastic volunteers, captured the story of how The Well of Plenty Foundation is utilizing technology to serve and empower the least. Their talented production team helped us tell our story, watch it here.
We are partnering with Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources where third year agronomy students spend one month of their studies on one of our demonstration gardens to get practical experience in the field, while assisting to implement new ideas to the farms.
The Well of Plenty Foundation has now expanded into the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, raising up leaders and communities with this same model.
Going Forward
Our mission of food secure and economically empowered communities is a vision without borders. We are in the plannings stages of securing land, drilling wells and building community gardens in Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique.
You could join us in this mission, come and get involved.