At the Academy of Culinary Nutrition, we teach our students to harness the power of food and create recipes that improve the health of their clients.

But sometimes, we also get to do something a little extra special: we use our recipes to heal the world.

Our recently launched e-cookbook, From Scratch 2015, is jam-packed with plant-based, gluten-free recipes donated by our wonderfully creative culinary nutrition students and grads. 100% of the proceeds of this e-cookbook were given to Kiva, a lending organization that helps people around the world start their own businesses.

In just two weeks, we raised more than $5,000  (about $4,700 USD) – and every single dollar was donated to help empower people to create their own business opportunities.

We have contributed $4,800 US dollars to 35 projects that span a variety of countries and industries. Nearly 90% of our loan recipients are women, and more than half are working in the food and agriculture sectors. Some of the people your donations have assisted include:

• Emily in Kenya, a farmer who received a loan to purchase eight solar lights and efficient hybrid seeds for her farm.
• Sam in Cambodia, a secondhand clothes seller whose loan will buy her the raw materials she needs to build her family a proper house.
• Fanny in Peru, a student whose loan will allow her to pay room, board and tuition as she studies education.
• Dora Elizabeth in El Salvador, a single mom who received money to support her business of selling local street food such as plaintain chips and horchata.
• Rebeca in Bolivia dreams of owning her own restaurant one day – but for now, her loan request granted her the ability to buy kitchen ingredients in bulk so she can sell her food at local markets.
• Alicia in the Philippines, a fisherman whose loan allowed her to purchase new fishing nets for her business.
• Natalia in Guatemala, a small restaurant owner who received a loan in order to purchase vegetables, fruit, rice, corn, pasta and oil for her restaurant.
• Gina in the Philippines has been raising cattle for nearly 30 years, and her loan was used to purchase feed and vitamins for her animals.
• Katuku in Kenya sells produce at local markets, and she received a loan to buy more fruits and vegetables for her market stand.

And what’s even more amazing is some of the 35 loans have already been repaid – and that has allowed us to re-lend $285 for additional projects. Your donations are already being paid forward – yay!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being a part of this amazing project. We are so incredibly fortunate to choose what we eat, where we work and how we live, and now these loans are giving people all over the world the same opportunities.

So the next time you whip up a dish from your copy of From Scratch, remember that culinary nutrition truly can help nourish the world – one recipe at a time. The mission of the school is to work together as one global community with one world changing goal and this project is simple proof that this lofty mission is more than just possible. It’s happening!

Want to join the project?

It’s not too late to take part in our Kiva Project fundraiser – visit our page over at Kiva for more stories and details about how you can join us.