Hershey training 7,500 people in Ghana on peanut farming

(Hershey) — As the saying goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

The Hershey Company, with former President Bill Clinton’s foundation the Clinton Global Initiative, is putting the Chinese proverb into practice.

The company plans to train 7,500 farmers in Ghana on best practices for harvesting peanuts.

Mike Wege, Hershey’s Chief Administrative Officer, says it’ll also distribute a product called Vivi to more than 50,000 kids starting next year.

“It’s a small pouch. It’s a peanut-based supplement that also has added nutritional value, added nutrients. It’s a very good tasting product from a Ghanian schoolchild standpoint, the product has been formulated to meet the taste of Ghanaian schoolchildren” says Wege. “It’s something that’s able to increase the caloric intake on a daily basis of these schoolchildren by as much as 25%, just by having this supplement added to their program during the day at school.”

By 2018, Hershey hopes to get all the peanuts it needs for the Vivi product from farmers it’s training between now and then.

Wege says Vivi can get kids the calories they need, boosting their intake by as much as 25 percent.

The initiative is part of Hershey’s Nourishing Minds project that aims to expand its impact beyond the Milton Hershey School.