From potable water for rural villages in Guatemala to community-based agriculture at the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota and Round Valley reservation in Northern California. DeColores provides the native producers more of the profits so they can develop their communities with local autonomy. In this way, Plenty has empowered more than 120 women's co-ops with economic independence in Chiapas, Mexico and in Guatemala. Plenty's free, volunteer ambulance service and paramedic training program in the South Bronx received the Jefferson Award for community service. Plenty also shared in the first Right Livelihood Award in Stockholm in 1980.
Plenty also sponsors a number of active environmental programs in North America.
In 1984 Plenty was approached by a group of Mayan community leaders from Guatemala for assistance. They were attempting to rebuild their economies after the devastating military oppression of 1981-1984. They were hoping Plenty could help them to expand their traditional textile industry as practiced by women, now mostly widows, throughout the Guatemalan highlands. The small catalog company grew rapidly from 1985 to 1990 as its Mayan partner mobilized ever more weaving cooperatives and established a sewing factory in Guatemala City and Mayan tailors improved their skills. To this end, Plenty has founded IWED - the Indigenous Women's Economic Development program.