-What we do: we teach sustainable farming to malnourished Guatemalan families in Sololá–fostering independence, not dependence. We teach from seed, to table. -How: Mayan women in the towns of San José Chacayá and Santa Lucía Utatlán reach out to us. They must want to receive our 10-hour training course and work in the Homestead to earn their garden box. After completing these requirements, they receive a garden box with various vegetable starts that they must keep looking after and re-planting so they can be consumed by their families. They receive a monthly follow-up for 12 months so they can be retaught anything they are having trouble with. -Results: of the 1,000+ garden boxes we have set up, 98% remain active thanks to the monthly follow up we give them. -How we started: in 2013, co-founders Greg and Lucy Jensen moved their family to Guatemala to pursue a simpler lifestyle. Seeing a country in need, they couldn't help wanting to give back to a people they had fallen in love with. However, many of the nonprofits in the area provided temporary relief without creating sustainable change—something Greg and Lucy felt strongly about. So they started their own organization. With their friends the Dennings, they moved to the “Homestead,” where they began teaching self-sustainable skills to the area’s neediest families. The response from the community was incredible. Seeing firsthand the change in people that teaching self-sustaining skills brought fueled an even stronger desire to empower as many people as possible. In three short years, we’ve worked hard to develop and refine a sustainable model that works. Cultiva has evolved over the years and will continue to evolve, but our core philosophy will remain the same—help without hurting.