Fueling Economic Growth and Financial Resilience in Senegal

Whole Foods Market Foundation collaborates with like-minded partners, sponsors, and individuals who share our goal of advancing healthy food access, nutrition, and economic opportunities in local and global communities. Our Board of Directors is among those championing our mission by leveraging their deep experience to help our projects — Whole Cities, Whole Kids, and Whole Planet — thrive.  

Recently, Whole Foods Market Foundation Board Members Catherine Kiely and Scott Collier, along with donor advocate Vince Kasperick, joined the Whole Planet team in Senegal to visit three partners — myAgro, Fansoto, and CAURIE MicroFinance — that are helping microentrepreneurs and smallholder farmers increase their income and improve their financial resiliency.  

Scott, Whole Foods Market VP of Business Development, shared a highlight, “Especially exciting were the communities of women we met that began with microfinance partner capital to fund their small agricultural and business enterprises, and then from the net cash flows, set up village savings and loan associations to build their own savings and lending mechanisms, setting terms that they control.” 

Store Team Leader, Catherine Kiely, was a Team Member Volunteer in Togo in 2019 and returned to West Africa once again on her 2024 visit to Senegal with Whole Planet. Fortunately, she documented much of the trip to share how Whole Planet’s collaborations with partners are empowering individuals and communities by fueling economic growth and resilience.  

Read on to learn about how Whole Planet and its partners are making a different in Senegal.   

A Closer Look from Catherine 

Going to Senegal to visit and learn from myAgro, Fansoto, and CAURIE, I saw the transformative impact that these organizations have had on women, their families, and their entire communities.  

The mobile layaway platform and packages of agriculture inputs created by myAgro are helping smallholder farmers to overcome some of the financial barriers to successful farming. They have also helped farmers to learn and adjust to the changing climate and rapid spread of desert. The microcredit and village banking programs offered by Fansoto and CAURIE have empowered thousands of women and their families to start and grow businesses, earn livable incomes, and even save money. For many, the networks they have made through their microcredit groups have fostered a sense of community and even a sisterhood. 

I am so grateful to have met these entrepreneurs and farmers and witnessed their successes first-hand. The connections made with these women, these organizations, and the Whole Foods Market Foundation team have helped seal for me what kind of Whole Foods Market Foundation Board Member I want to be.  

It is impossible to express the impact of the time spent in Senegal without sharing some of the stories of the people we met along the way. Here are just a few: 

myAgro

We had the opportunity to learn from myAgro, an amazing partner organization that has created an innovative system for farmers to overcome the financial barriers to successful farming. They have created a series of packages available across remote areas of Senegal and Mali. These packages are purchased when the farmers have funds and are delivered when the time is right for planting. They also provide training on farming methods that will save money, adapt to the changing climate, and increase overall production. 

Awa (the farmer in the yellow skirt above) is growing hibiscus and black-eyed peas with myAgro packages and training. She likes coming together to learn and the incentives that are given for attending the trainings. She also appreciates the ability to pay in smaller increments when she has money available.

The husband and wife in this farming family grew crops from myAgro packages. He has been a millet farmer, so his wife started growing peanuts. Their son (in the foreground above) is holding some freshly harvested peanuts to share with our group. 

This season, they added on a poultry package. This is a hybrid bird good for both meat and eggs. These healthy chickens are just five weeks old. They will soon sell the four males at the market, which will cover the cost of the program. After that, all the eggs provided by the six females will be used to feed their family and earn additional income. 

Fansoto

The photo above is from a Fansoto Microcredit Group meeting in Ziguinchor. They have been together as a group since 2017! The women in Fansoto’s microcredit groups have been able to launch and grow their businesses through microcredit, develop business relationships within the group, and even save money. The education, opportunities, and connections they have acquired through Fansoto will last a lifetime.

Fansoto offers add-on loans including items that focus on sustainability, financial, and environmental health. This includes cleaner burning stoves that reduce deforestation by using far less charcoal than is required for other cooking methods. It also allows households to use the money they would have used on charcoal for other things.

The five Fansoto clients pictured above have fish businesses in this Ziguinchor market. Rokaya (in brown) has been expanding her fish business through increasing loans. She would like to continue growing this business and add on by making and selling brooms in the same market. 

CAURIE

Ida (above) is in a CAURIE Village Banking group. Her group has been together for 10 years and has become a sisterhood. Her store carries clothing, body care, and household goods. She makes enough now that she probably would be considered for a traditional bank loan. However, she does not like that traditional banks require collateral and prefers the solidarity of being in a group.

Anta (in red above) is the president of the village banking group. In addition to her duties with the group, she operates a boutique, and, along with her husband, just invested some of her savings to build this meeting space.  

Thanks to Yvan, Claire, Daniel, and everyone who made it possible for our Board Members to go and experience just a tiny fraction of the real-life impact of Whole Foods Market Foundation. Here’s to equitable futures for all!