![The Vines [Food Security] (Fall 2021)](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56383b39e4b0936ed2c3e359/1631200883485-5JTCWH22EQVK5KNX7HFA/vines2.jpeg)
Project Background
Valle de Uco (Uco Valley) is an agricultural region southwest of Mendoza, Argentina. Despite Argentina being a strong agricultural exporter, extreme food insecurity in the country. Roughly 60% of Argentinian children were living in poverty when the second wave of Covid-19 infections struck. 40 percent of children in Argentina suffer from malnutrition.
The Vines Foundation is a catalyst for change in Tunuyan, Mendoza, empowering our community to enhance health, end hunger and overcome hardship so they might regain sustainable livelihoods. As the philanthropic arm of an Argentine farming, winemaking, and hospitality company with deep connections to international resources through our clients in the US, Europe, and Brazil, The Vines Foundation is leveraging these resources to meet the immediate local challenge of food insecurity, feeding about 1,000 children each month who otherwise go hungry. Most importantly, however, we are building capacity within our community and the organizations we work with, and seeking to engage local and national businesses, along with the government to solve this crisis of being an agriculturally rich county in which many of its children are starving, and thereby sacrificing their future.
Definition of Opportunity
The Vines Foundation is interested in partnering with DAT to explore building new skills and capacities for solving food insecurity in the agriculturally rich Uco Valley as a pilot project. We hope that initial success in the Uco Valley could be replicated first throughout the province of Mendoza and then potentially have an impact across Argentina.
Definition of Success
Generate a clear understanding of the scope of hunger in the Uco Valley, including detailed data to be able to share with policymakers, community leaders, and donors.
Identify advocacy and legislative opportunities to incentivize food donations.
Determine the feasibility of an Urban Agriculture Program whereby donated land could be farmed, creating jobs and food for the community, or other creative opportunities for development that address issues of chronic hunger, malnutrition, and underemployment.
