ACTIVITIES WRAP-UP FOR 2024

As we look back on 2024, we’re grateful for a year filled with impact, challenges, and lessons learned. It was a year of effective translation of our vision into ground activities, and some setbacks at the same time. With the trust of more partners and communities, our workload increased significantly, pushing us to try manage resources wisely.

ONE NOTE: For pictures and videos of activities, please check our social media! This report is a narrative overview.

THE EGGS PROJECT

Our Eggs Project continued to grow, with over 25 portable chicken coops distributed to families and organizations across northern, central, and eastern Albania. These coops provide families with a bit of more food, and we’ve seen firsthand how small initiatives can make a difference. That said, one challenge we faced was lower-than-expected egg sales, which means we still have work to do in making the project self-sustaining.

What This Project Is About:

The Eggs Project helps fight food insecurity, empowers local farmers, and promotes regenerative farming in Albania.

What was done in 2024:

25+ portable chicken coops distributed, each including chickens, organic feed, and training.
These coops collectively produce around 5,000 eggs every month.
Our central coop expanded from 40 to 200 chickens, serving as a model for best farming practices.
A part of our eggs were donated to local families and charities.

Challenges & Lessons Learned:

Logistics – Transporting coops was more expensive since we don’t have our own vehicle for this.

Delays – For various reasons, some coops were delayed in the delivery process
Disease management – We expected to have difficulties and we did have, but we also learned a lot and kept losses low.
Sales & sustainability – Egg sales were lower than expected, so we need to rethink our approach.

Environmental Efforts:

CO2 emissions were minimised from using two LPG vehicles, an electric bike, and a scooter for local deliveries.
We explored supplementing the feed of chickens with local restaurant food scraps but later shifted to using any leftover food from our food bank for safety reasons.

Looking Ahead:

We are hoping to eventually set up a 1,000-egg incubator to cut costs.
We want to expand to 5,000+ birds to create a larger impact.
The general goal of this initiative is to reach 200 distributed portable coops (we’re currently at 25-30). Find more at the project’s webpage.

THE FMNR PROJECT

Albania’s lands continue to suffer from deforestation because the pace of cutting and destruction from disease is higher than the pace of replanting or management of current forests. Currently, the forest situation in least 3 counties is in emergency and if things continue like this, soon, most of the forests will be at existential risk.

In 2023, we were thrilled to receive a call from partners who were willing to invest in us and apply the FMNR approach in Albania. After studying for 6 months, we finally were able to introduce the Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) in early 2024. This project runs through August 2025 and focuses on restoring landscapes in a sustainable way—without planting new trees. Instead, FMNR regenerates growth from stumps, roots, and seeds, making it cost-effective and easier to implement from anybody.

We were able to:

Train farmers and communities in Korçë, Elbasan, Lushnje, Tirana and other regions.
Create an online platform with materials and updates: https://fmnr.feeding.al/
Connect with churches, NGOs, and community leaders to expand awareness.
Conduct practical demonstrations, getting local farmers involved.

Challenges:

Not enough perceived urgency – Some farmers don’t see the need for FMNR because they already have fertile land and water.
Land ownership issues – It’s hard to implement FMNR on communal land without government approval and intensive talks and resources.
Low youth involvement – Many young people look for quick-profit projects, so FMNR hasn’t attracted as many volunteers as we hoped (we currently have about 8-10 committed young people). At the same time, once committed, the youth are more engaged and results oriented.

The coming steps will include the continuing of training efforts, work with forest engineers and government officials to bring FMNR into national parks and protected areas and also connect with like minded organisations in the country.

We are thankful to have been trusted with planting the first seeds of FMNR in Albania. We’re grateful for our donors and supporters who believe in this work. FMNR simply works!

FARM TO FORK

The Farm to Fork project is now in its third year, and we’re loving the hands-on learning opportunities it brings! This project is all about teaching people—especially young people—how to grow their own food.

We had more than five organized groups visit in 2024, and we hope to welcome even more this year. Our goal is to clear up common food myths and show young people how simple and rewarding gardening can be. Some might even discover a future career in sustainable agriculture!

💡 This project is currently almost 100% funded by Albanian donors, and we’re looking for ways to expand it into other locations than currently in our food garden in Yzberish.

Our messages are simple: Good food should be for everyone. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Knowing how to grow food is a skill that lasts a lifetime and worth investing in.

SOME REFLECTIONS

2024 was indeed a good year, but it wasn’t easy. Some challenges we faced include:

Transportation struggles and old vehicles with high costs of repair. This resulted in much valuable time lost.

To counter this situation, we launched a fundraising campaign for a vehicle but only reached 10% of our goal. Thankfully, a generous friend donated a vehicle, which has helped a lot to at least get us around. The funds we did raise went toward paperwork and repairs to the vehicle.

Food Distribution Struggles to our network of partnering organizations.
We worked hard to keep our food distribution program running, but our dedicated resources were … well zero. We did manage to distribute food and other goods to selected families. We also catalyzed between different donors and specific families to receive help through food and nonfood items. However, food banking efforts were at an all-time low due to internal limitations.

It is a shame that so much food goes to waste in our poor Albania, while at the same time so many people go hungry and in need of that same food. So, we will proceed following the opportunity which shines like the sun; there is much food simply waiting to be taken to the hungry people. Food banking activities are by far the most rewarding and wide reach and so we will keep praying, hoping, knocking.

LOOKING AHEAD TO THIS YEAR

In 2025, we pray to be able to:
Strengthen our current projects and making them more stable.
Implement new strategies for food security, food waste reduction and rural support. We currently have a few great opportunities and are working to see them carried out.
Expand activities across more areas of the country.

Unfortunately, we continue to see the widening of the gap between the rich and poor. Anti-poverty programs are not attractive enough to most people. It is just the same old, helping the needy. But we must not forget the needy and the poor. We must remember that no one ever planned to be poor in the first place. Or alone.

We also want to take a moment to value and honor everyone who has supported us—whether through donations, time, or encouragement—thank you. We appreciate you.

As Noam Chomsky, the American philosopher once said:
“There are no poor countries, only failed systems of resource management.”

Let’s keep the light shining!

FEED. SUSTAIN. TOGETHER.