January 8, 2025
What if something as simple as growing a garden or reducing food waste could change lives? At DIG, we see it happen every day. For Adji in Senegal, learning to grow her own nutritious food didn’t just improve her health, it gave her family hope. And the best part? We can all take small steps to make an impact. Nutrition.
When we plant gardens, we plant hope, resilience, and a reminder that while we can’t predict the future, we can nurture a world of abundance. Adji Diémé, who learned to cultivate a garden beside her home, shows us how small seeds, when cared for, can transform lives
At Development in Gardening (DIG), improving Nutrition and Health isn’t just one of our 5 Pillars of Impact—it’s a lifesaving one. Unlike hunger, which refers to the physical sensation of needing food but doesn’t necessarily address the nutritional quality of the food, malnutrition is a condition where the body doesn’t get the proper nutrients it needs to thrive. Malnutrition can occur even when food is abundant, and as a result, it can stunt physical and mental growth, exacerbate disease, limit economic opportunities, and lead to despair. For pregnant mothers and young children, malnutrition can have life-threatening and lifelong consequences.
But malnutrition is not inevitable. With access to a nutritious, balanced diet, families can rebuild their health, increase their resilience, and improve their futures. This is why at DIG, we focus on teaching families how to sustainably grow and harvest nutrient-dense food, improving both their physical and mental health while fostering long-term food security.
Adji Diémé, a 40-year-old mother from Fogny in Lower Casamance, Senegal, embodies the challenges and triumphs of families facing malnutrition. Adji and her husband, Yaya, moved to Ziguinchor with dreams of a better future. For a time, Yaya’s motorcycle repair shop provided for their family, but like so many others, the pandemic upended their stability. Yaya lost his shop, their income disappeared, and the stress weighed heavily on their family.
During her prenatal visit to the Kandialang health clinic, Adji learned about DIG’s Malnutrition Prevention Program, which supports pregnant women at risk of having children who do to healthy and social economical obstacles become malnutrition. Encouraged by a midwife at the clinic, Adji enrolled, unaware that this first step would transform her family’s future.
Adji received seeds, tools, and training to start her own garden. While her crops and her belly grew, DIG provided her with a locally produced blend of enriched flour for an added nutritional boost. Over time, her garden flourished, becoming a reliable source of fresh, healthy food. Beyond the vegetables, Adji gained a renewed sense of hope and strength for her family’s future.
She shared, “I’m so happy with the program. It has helped me improve my nutrition, communicate better with my husband, and feel supported when I needed it most. I’m grateful to DIG and everyone who made this possible.”
Adji’s story is a testament to the transformative power of small actions. Tiny seeds planted in fertile soil, nurtured over time, can yield powerful results. For DIG’s farmers, we’ve seen firsthand how a simple garden can transform lives by providing essential nutrients and fostering greater household resilience. But this idea extends beyond the families we work with—it’s something we can all embody.
In wealthier nations, food waste is a widespread issue, with millions of pounds of edible food discarded every year. By becoming better stewards of our resources, we can help address this issue. Start by reducing food waste in your own kitchen. Whether it’s repurposing leftovers, using all parts of a vegetable, or adapting recipes to what you already have, small choices add up. By honoring the resources we already have, we can contribute to a global shift toward better nutrition, less waste, and a healthier climate.
Need some inspiration? Try Mitchell Anderson’s Marinated Kale Salad. It’s a nutrient-rich dish that encourages creativity while reducing waste. Toss in seasonal ingredients, toasted nuts, a sprinkle of cheese—whatever you have on hand that might go bad before you’re ready. You’ll have a delicious meal that honors the resources in your kitchen.
Nutrition is at the heart of DIG’s work because we’ve seen its transformative power firsthand. In communities like Adji’s, access to a diverse, vegetable-rich diet doesn’t just improve health—it has the potential to unlock economic opportunities and restore dignity.
By addressing malnutrition through regenerative agriculture, DIG empowers families to take control of both their health and their futures. Gardens can meet immediate nutritional needs and foster long-term resilience by teaching families how to grow, share, and sustain food within their communities.
How You Can Help
Adji’s journey is one of many that remind us how nurturing small seeds of action can lead to monumental change. Here’s how you can support DIG’s mission and help families like Adji’s grow:
Donate: Every contribution provides tools, seeds, and training to vulnerable families.
Share this story: Spread the word about DIG’s work and inspire others to take action.
Sign Up for Our Newsletter: Stay connected with updates, inspiring stories, and ways to make an impact.
Senegal holds a special place in DIG’s history—it’s where our first seeds of change were planted. Today, in the Casamance region, we’re working alongside young mothers, people living with HIV, and undernourished children to create healthier futures through our nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs. Stories like Adji’s, a mother who turned her life around by learning to grow fresh, nutritious food in challenging sandy soil, remind us of the resilience and potential within these communities. In Ziguinchor, where climate change and limited resources test farmers daily, DIG participants are defying the odds with flourishing gardens. Learn more about DIG in Senegal and see how you can help plant seeds.