Kenyan growing misheveve, managu in US gets Ksh. 103 million to expand food distribution centre

Dr. Truphena Choti, founder and CEO of AfriThrive Inc., will use the funding to renovate and expand the organisation’s community food centre in Essex, Baltimore County.

The investment, secured through Congressionally Directed Spending by US Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, will support increased refrigeration capacity, improved food handling and distribution systems and the creation of space for nutrition education and skills development.

The upgraded facility is expected to enable AfriThrive to provide more fresh, nutritious and culturally appropriate food to immigrant and low-income families in Baltimore County and Baltimore City.

Together with her husband, Prof Charles Choti, she runs the AfriThrive Cultural Farm in Maryland, where they grow vegetables familiar to Kenyan households, including misheveve, managu, mrenda, kunde, terere and sagaa.

AfriThrive says it has distributed more than 2.5 million pounds of food and served more than 150,000 people across Maryland through its mobile food pantry, community partnerships and food programmes.