Mary Delano

QUICKINFO

The problem

In Mexico, malnutrition is a paradoxical epidemic in which a large subset of the population suffers from food scarcity and an even larger group struggles with malnutrition and/or obesity brought on by plentiful supply of unhealthy food.

The strategy

Mary uses amaranth, a plant endemic to Mexico with high nutritional content, to improve nutrition, psychological health and economic living conditions. Her intervention is based on training women to plant and use amaranth for personal cooking and eventually commercial distribution.

The impact

To date, MTA is located in 12 of 18 municipalities in the state of Querétaro and has almost 7,000 beneficiaries.

Sustainability

The MTA model is self-sustaining and scalable because those trained go on to become local promoters and trainers. MTA is run as a social business.