Heifer Project works with grassroots community groups, who determine their own needs, and train and prepare for their animals. They also decide who will benefit first from the gift of livestock and how the animals will be passed on to other families. To end hunger effectively, food production must be sustainable and kind to the environment. Heifer Project trains farmers to manage grazing, plant trees and crops and use natural fertilizer in ways that improve the environment. Heifer Project animals offer hungry families around the world a way to feed themselves and become self-reliant.
Farmers learn sustainable, environmentally sound agricultural techniques.
In the 1930s, a civil war raged in Spain. Dan West, a Midwestern farmer and Church of the Brethren youth worker, ladled out cups of milk to hungry children on both sides of the conflict. He asked his friends back home to donate heifers, a young cow that has not borne a calf, so hungry families could feed themselves. In return, they could help another family become self-reliant by passing on to them one of their gift animal's female calves. The idea of giving families a source of food rather than short-term relief caught on and has continued for more than 50 years.