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.
“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.
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