Wakulima USA is a farming and food business cooperative that advances small business development and food sovereignty for low income immigrants and people of color in the Puget Sound region. Wakulima means “Farmers” in Kiswahili the most widely spoken language in Africa. Wakulima’s founding members are Kiswahili speaking African immigrants who are committed to preserving traditional farming and food ways and creating shared prosperity through cooperative economics. Our organization empowers people to harness their traditional food ways, modern farming techniques and food innovation strategies to build successful businesses centered around healthy, sustainable, local farming and food production. We aim to increase the total number, net income, success rate and growth rate of farmers and food business entrepreneurs from the communities we serve. We also seek to decrease health disparities resulting from food inequities and to increase the perceived value of traditional food ways in these communities.
