The Desmond Tutu Programme to End Global Hunger

Solar-powered greenhouses, hands-on training, and local partnership, built to help communities grow their own food for the long term. Named for Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who gave the work his blessing.

Support this work → Read his blessing

When FreshMinistries asked to name this work after him, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was reluctant. He did not see the value in naming it after himself. Then he gave his blessing anyway. He wrote:

Your program is quite exciting and has such a great potential for helping to eradicate poverty. You and your colleagues already have an enviable record of making a difference. I commend you and your colleagues on a superb record. Well done. I really don’t see what value there is in naming this splendid project after me. But that is what you seem to want. For what it is worth, I am willing for you to do that. God bless you.

-- Desmond Tutu
Archbishop Desmond Tutu with FreshMinistries leaders and partners, gathered outside, at the 2019 launch of the initiative named in his honour
FreshMinistries Board Member Prof. Oupa Seane with Archbishop Tutu, Chief of Staff Ms. Shelly Marino, and Founding Chairman the Rev. Dr. Robert Vernon Lee III, at the launch of the Tutu initiative in 2019.
Three growers holding a fresh harvest of greens, spring onions and tomatoes outside a community greenhouse

From Jacksonville to the World

The Desmond Tutu Programme to End Global Hunger helps communities build food systems they can operate, sustain, and grow over time.

Using solar-powered greenhouses, water-efficient production, hands-on training, refrigeration, dehydration, and local market development, the programme equips communities to produce fresh food, reduce waste, create jobs, and strengthen local economies.

This is not short-term food aid. It is long-term food capacity, built with local partners and designed to be led by the communities it serves.

Our approach

Proven systems work best when they are placed in local hands. The Desmond Tutu Programme to End Global Hunger works with community partners, universities, churches, NGOs, and local leaders to build food-production systems that can be operated, sustained, and expanded by the communities they serve.

Each greenhouse combines water-efficient growing, solar power, real-time monitoring, and hands-on training. Around the greenhouse, Harvest Hubs add refrigeration, dehydration, storage, and distribution so fresh food lasts longer and creates more local value.

FreshMinistries brings the model, technical training, and ongoing support. Local partners bring leadership, land, workers, relationships, and community knowledge. Together, the goal is to build locally led food systems that feed people, train people, employ people, and grow stronger over time.

Rows of white vertical grow towers filled with greens inside a FreshMinistries tower greenhouse

Where the 220 comes from

In 2022, bishops from across the worldwide Anglican Communion gathered at the Lambeth Conference, where global hunger was one of the urgent needs discussed. FreshMinistries brought forward a practical response: community-based greenhouse systems designed to grow food locally, train local teams, and support long-term food security.

Following that gathering, 220 bishops pledged support for greenhouse projects in their provinces, demonstrating local demand, community readiness, and church leadership, and helping funders see where investment can have immediate and lasting impact.

The invitation remains open: a locally led food-production center for communities, dioceses, and parishes ready to grow their own future.

How the training works

The programme trains local teams to run their own farms. Training runs six weeks, in three phases, and every farm sends at least two people. It begins in a classroom and ends on the farmer's own site.

Phase one

Classroom and lab

One week at a working training farm in Johannesburg. Applied classroom and laboratory instruction in how a farm is built, run, and kept running: the science and the business of aquaponics, food safety, solar and water systems, operations, logistics, and day-to-day management.

Phase two

Hands-on

Three weeks on a real, working farm that grows and sells its own produce. Work-based learning, plus life-skills training for running a business: leadership, planning, and managing people.

Phase three

On-site

Two weeks on the farmer's own newly built farm, working beside a qualified trainer: planting the first seedlings, transplanting to the towers, water testing, filtration, solar-array care, and choosing what to grow.

The goal is a farmer who can run the operation on their own. Support and help stay available afterward, but the point of the training is self-sufficiency. In each country served, the local Anglican partners also send representatives to complete the course.

The training in numbers

6 weeks of hands-on training for every local team
3 phases: classroom, a working farm, then the farmer's own site
2 people per farm, at least, trained to run it

Help a community grow its own food

This work goes farm by farm, community by community. A gift helps stock a greenhouse, train a local team, and keep fresh food growing where it is needed most. Give today, and we will show you where it goes.

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