Pound Ridge Resident Empowers Nepalese Women

POUND RIDGE, N.Y. -- Peace Corps volunteer and Pound Ridge native Benjamin Wagner empowered women in Nepal by establishing a mushroom collective. Female subsistence farmers will earn money for their families and add nutrients to their diets through the collective.

Frank Mojica

03/26/2015 4:00 a.m.

“In practice, food security involves agriculture, nutrition, income generation and more — it’s so all-encompassing that it seems, at times, overwhelming, but it can really be empowering,” said Wagner, a Middlebury College graduate. Because mushrooms can be dried, they will provide sustenance and income during the off-season. Wagner and a local women's development committee established six collectives and two mushroom cultivation houses with help from a Peace Corps Small Projects grant.

For more information on the Peace Corps, visit: www.peacecorps.gov.

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