How Kitchen Gardens Are Advancing Food Security in Central America
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- How Traditional Agriculture Supports Food Security in Central America
- Building Stronger Families Through Food Security Programs
- Tracking Impact: Small Gardens, Big Gains for Food Security
- Climate-Smart Gardening for Resilient Food Systems
- Keeping Momentum: Advancing Food Security in Central America
- What We’ve Learned About Supporting Food Security in Rural Guatemala
Across coffee-growing communities in Guatemala and Honduras, more farmers are growing vegetables at home, right in their backyards. Through a TechnoServe project that supports smallholder families with seed kits and practical training, hundreds are starting and maintaining kitchen gardens that adapt to local microclimates, improve nutrition, and lower household food costs.
Kitchen gardens are playing a growing role in improving food security for rural families. By planting small plots of vegetables and herbs near their homes, families are gaining more reliable access to fresh, nutritious food. With training and support, especially in coffee-growing regions, more families are incorporating kitchen gardening into their everyday lives—strengthening their nutrition, resilience, and overall well-being.
| What is a Kitchen Garden? Kitchen gardens are small agricultural spaces used for growing vegetables, fruits, and medicinal plants. Typically located in a small plot near the home—often in the backyard—and managed by multiple family members, they make accessing fresh, healthy food easier. These gardens also have the potential to generate income through the sale of surplus produce while helping reduce household food expenses. |
How Traditional Agriculture Supports Food Security in Central America
A long tradition and cultural heritage centered on small-scale agriculture make Guatemala and Honduras ideal for establishing family gardens and promoting the safe consumption of varied, healthy vegetables. Through the Empowered Families, Prosperous Communities (FECP) project—part of Nespresso’s AAA Sustainable Quality Program, implemented by TechnoServe and funded by Nespresso—families receive the tools to strengthen their social and economic well-being while deepening their connection to Nespresso’s supply chains.
So far, 546 Guatemalan and Honduran coffee-farming families have received seed kits that include, depending on location, swiss chard, spinach, carrots, squash, cilantro, radish, beets, onions, mustard greens, cucumber, cabbage, and pumpkin.
In the words of Banessa Guifarro, TechnoServe’s Business Advisor, “the seeds provided allow families to add more variety and flavor to their meals. Each kit, valued at around $40, offers vegetables that many families would not typically purchase, since that money is usually prioritized for farm-related expenses.”
Building Stronger Families Through Food Security Programs
The program team facilitated conversations and led learning sessions for men and women, beginning with topics like family vision, communication, and shared responsibilities. As the sessions progressed, participants also explored nutrition and eventually received seed kits to start kitchen gardens as a way to apply what they had learned. Starting with building a family vision, participants discussed their dreams and aspirations, the importance of communication, mutual appreciation, and access to healthy, varied food to support their well-being.
“We have three training modules on family well-being that address topics such as communication, the contributions of each family member to the farm and home. They also cover nutrition, and key elements on how to eat healthy and varied according to the availability of food in the areas where the project is present,” said Shirly Cano, manager of the Empowered Families, Prosperous Communities project. “Men and women participate, and after attending these sessions, we deliver a seed kit as an incentive so they can establish a family garden.”
“My experience has been very meaningful,” said Brendy Yamileth Rivera Fuentes, a participant in the program. “The garden has filled me with the courage to change some of my eating habits. It has also made my daughter participate in cutting vegetables. Some of the vegetables she didn’t like before, seeing the process of planting, growing, and harvesting, she has started to eat them. Economically, I have saved because before I traveled to other places to buy vegetables, and now I have them in my yard.”
“The gardens involve the whole family: children, husband, parents. They promote coexistence and contribute to strengthening family unity,” mentioned Ana Mejía, TechnoServe community trainer. “Without a doubt, the seed kit is a good complement to the third training module on nourishing family well-being and a simple strategy for small coffee farmers to put their acquired knowledge into practice. The eight ounces of seeds contained in each kit encourage crop diversification and provide great benefits as they are species that can be planted in small areas of land and provide essential nutrients for disease prevention.”
Tracking Impact: Small Gardens, Big Gains for Food Security
The Empowered Families, Prosperous Communities project trainers have visited approximately 300 gardens in Guatemala and Honduras. The gardens are in different phases of implementation, as the social and environmental conditions of the families are different. 30% of the families have an established garden or a growing garden. Forty-two of them have already harvested vegetables to complement their diet. The remaining 11% are carrying out a second planting season.
Climate-Smart Gardening for Resilient Food Systems
Knowing which vegetables grow best in each community—and the most appropriate time for planting—is vital, as is implementing regenerative agriculture practices for climate resilience. Coffee farmers have adopted several techniques, including incorporating organic matter into the soil, making compost with coffee pulp and other organic waste, using plant cover to retain moisture, prevent erosion, and improve soil fertility, and planting living barriers around their gardens.
Keeping Momentum: Advancing Food Security in Central America
Small-scale agriculture is critical to the Guatemalan and Honduran economies, contributing to both household livelihoods and national development. The efforts made by the Empowered Families, Prosperous Communities project complement those of both governments through aligned public policies and rural development strategies. For instance, in Guatemala, during 2024, 155,000 rural producers learned about healthy eating practices, and Honduras became a regional benchmark by reducing food and nutritional insecurity from 28% in 2022 to 18% in August 2024, according to data from the government.
What We’ve Learned About Supporting Food Security in Rural Guatemala
At the beginning of the project, only 10% of the enrolled coffee-farming families had a kitchen garden. This was mainly due to limited knowledge about vegetable planting, lack of water for irrigation, and time constraints. Most of these families work on land ranging from 0.2 to 1 hectare. Over time, and with targeted support, many have begun to establish and maintain productive gardens. Today, photographs from the field reflect meaningful progress.
For many coffee-farming households, kitchen gardens are now part of daily life. They provide a steady source of fresh food, help lower household expenses, and align with the routines and aspirations of the families who maintain them.
