“Life in Mozambique is hard for people of any age. It has been our joy to walk with Api through this ordeal. He has been patient, long suffering, and appreciative through it all. So many people go without the aid that Api has been privy to. We cannot take care of everyone, but we can take care of those who are brought before us that we feel called to help.”
– Terri Larson, Director of Social Impact
I first met Api at one of our community projects back in early 2016. At the time, his left leg was swollen to twice its size because of a major infection, so we resolved to treat it – first with the help of a nurse and then, once I learned the procedure, on my own.
After over a year of treating Api’s leg to no improvement, we received permission from his mother (pictured here with Api and her youngest son, Boane) to take him to a doctor at a private hospital. The infection was far worse than we thought, and we were told that Api would need to have surgery or he would risk losing his leg for good.
After searching out quotations, we decided to have his surgery done at the Veteran’s Hospital in Maputo on April 21st, 2017. He was such a brave little boy on the day of his surgery as he patiently waited in his bed to be called.
Api’s surgery went well and he was returned to his room to recover. He was in hospital 7 days before he was well enough to be released. It was a very happy day for us all, as you can tell by our smiles.
Leaving the hospital, Api displayed a steadfast determination to recover and walk again. He maintained this resolve throughout his entire healing process.
Api’s healing process has truly been a community effort! His neighborhood friends assisted by ensuring that Api rested rather than played as he was surely tempted to do. Sebi or myself visited him daily to clean the wound and change his bandages. His mother and other neighbors ensured that he took his medication and was eating nutrient-rich foods and vitamins.
And here is our Api today! It has been 8 months since his surgery. His recovery was long and painful for him, and he missed a month of school. But now he is pain-free, all caught up with his school work, and enjoying running and playing soccer again with his friends.]]>When I was back in the US visiting at my daughter, Cassie’s, house, she got me totally hooked on the TV series Fixer Upper. Well, let me say that Chip and Joanna Gaines have got nothing on me! I would love to see them come to Mozambique and fix up a house for our Sunshine families. Now that would be an episode to watch!
First, we go out into a designated area and look for a house. We have three main requirements…it must have two bedrooms, water, and electric. Sounds like an easy thing to find. Not! I still find it shocking how few families in Mozambican communities have water and electric. Electric and water hook ups are a must for us to purchase a house. We learned the hard way with our first house that one can wait weeks and even months for the water or electric company to come. It is not something we ever want to endure again!
Our search for a house in our price range with these three requirements took months to complete. Yet a house was found and the bargaining process began. After repeated offers and counteroffers, we agreed on a purchase price with the owner of the house in which we were interested. The actual purchase of the home is the most simple part of this whole process. It is a cash deal, which requires repeated trips to the ATM machine. It simply involves a meeting of the owner, the buyer, and the local chefe (community leader). The contract is a hand written piece of paper that simply says, “The buyer, Sunshine Approach Foundation, is purchasing the home belonging to XXX for the price of $$$ and is witnessed by the chefe, XXX.” All three parties sign and the deal is done. The house was ours.
It is at this point that I get to see the house for the first time. Before this, I cannot show my face because I am a foreigner or the price will double. I went to see the house with my colleague, Delcio. We made a list of all that would need to be done before anyone could live there. And then…the work began.
The first job was to replace the broken front door and to add a door for the room that would be the kitchen. Having good solid doors would be a deterrent to burglars. A carpenter was hired for this job as well as to repair the wooden windows that were still usable. Now that our house would be protected, we moved forward.
Our house did have electric, but the lines were tacked on the outside of the walls. This is not a safe situation for children. So we hired Alberto, a former Sunshine Nut employee who went to school and studied electrical engineering. His job was to hack channels into the cement walls and to run the lines of wiring to all the lights, outlets, and switches. This is the most destructive part of the process. It is during this time that I stay away because it is so disturbing to see the house literally torn apart. Alberto dug the channels and installed all the wiring in the walls, hung new lights from the ceiling, put in switches on the walls for the lights, new outlets for the plugs, and 4 outdoor lights to provide lighting at night. When he was done, it looked like Armageddon!
This is when we called in the pedreiro- a mason. He cemented all of the dug channels in the walls. He also replaced the air vents in each room. He replastered the back wall of the house, which was decaying, and he put in 4 new metal windows purchased at the local market to replace wooden ones that were rotten. His final job was to make a cement walkway from the front veranda, around the side of the house, and to the bathroom which is located out behind the house.
In came our plumber, Lorinho. Lorinho’s job was to install a sink in the kitchen, connect it to the water supply, and install the tubes to let it drain out into a fossa (a pit) in the front yard. For the fossa, we hired a local man to dig a hole that was as deep as he was tall. The pedreiro was called back in to line it with cement blocks, and we let it sit to dry out before putting on the cement lid. Unfortunately for us, a huge rainstorm caused it to fill again with mud. So it was dug out again and more layers of cement blocks were laid to raise the height of the fossa.
At this point, someone broke in and stole the sink from the bathroom out back as well as the light bulbs from the exposed temporary lighting Alberto had installed. So the plumber was called back in to install a new sink plus replace the totally gross toilet. A good strong lock was installed on the bathroom door and burglar bars on the window. And Alberto came back to install official outdoor lights that were burglar proof.
We were now ready for the fun parts! Carlos arrived on the scene and spent a week painting each room. A fresh, bright coat of white paint made all the difference in the world! Delcio hung curtain rods and I added the curtains. We were now ready to move in furniture. In came beds, mattresses, mosquito nets, a wicker living room set and TV, table, chairs, stove, and a refrigerator. We added pots, pans, plates, cups, cutlery, bed linens, towels, and a hundred other of those little things you need in a home.
And now comes the best part of all…the people! Just as each of our Sunshine Houses will be unique in the way they look, each house will also be unique in who lives there. Our main focus is on helping needy widows and orphans. Yet we will also have women who have been abandoned by their husbands and have no one to care for them. Zelda, in our first house, is such a woman. We will also have children who have been abandoned by their parents. Christina and Virginia at our second Sunshine House live there because their parents split up, and when their mothers met new husbands, the new man would not accept the children of the previous husband, an all too common occurrence in Mozambique.
We searched for a caretaker for our third house. We first spoke with a woman named Ilda. Ilda was a widow who had experience working as a caretaker at a children’s center- a definite plus. She was a lovely woman, but she was young (33 years old), strong and capable of finding employment. Our objective is to have a woman who needs someone to come alongside her. Someone who is struggling to survive on her own and has no ability to gain income. We then met with Angelica. We liked her from the moment we laid eyes on her! She had a smile that brightened the day and eyes that were filled with light. Angelica is a 57 year old widow. We shared our expectations with her and then asked her if she had any questions. Her only question was whether she would be able to take the children to church with her…she was hired!!!
Angelica has moved into the house and is settling in. She is getting to know the neighbors and learning where in her area to buy the things she will need. We check in on her each day to make sure she is adjusting well. She is very excited to receive children. This will come next. We are waiting for the final approval to register our foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We can then work with the Social Action branch of the government to identify and place orphaned children. We have been told that we will receive this approval in the coming week- a welcome notification after a grueling and frustrating year and a half run-around registration process.]]>At Sunshine Nut Co., being a little “nuts” is part of the job description. I started Sunshine Nut Co. after enjoying a successful 25-year career in the corporate food industry. In 2011, I gave it all up and moved my family to Mozambique to start Sunshine Nut Co.
It wasn’t an immediate decision. During my time as Director of Cocoa Operations at Hershey, I traveled to developing nations to source cocoa and witnessed the effects of extreme poverty firsthand. I had worked for years as the go-to “turnaround guy” at Hershey solving seemingly insurmountable problems in varying departments. This role led me to a problem that truly felt impossible – but that didn’t stop me from wanting to solve it.
In 2007, I turned down a major career move and left my corporate life for a spiritual journey to discover God’s true purpose for my life. It was in this season of listening and waiting that God spoke to me with clarity that was almost audible – saying, “Go and build food factories in developing nations to bring lasting economic transformation.” Through prayer and solitude, I then developed the Sunshine Approach business model, focusing on transforming lives at every level of the business. Not long after, I was led to Mozambique and its abundance of amazing cashews to start this grand adventure. Faced with a calling I had little desire to fulfill, I chose to be obedient. My wife and I sold everything we owned and moved our family to Mozambique.
Since we moved to Mozambique in 2011, we have found our own lives transformed. In the past six years, we have built a world-class food factory hiring primarily adult orphans. We have developed relationships with orphanages and other community organizations throughout Mozambique where we support and develop projects with 90% of our profits. In 2014, we landed on US shelves and today, we have an all-African staff of 30 producing the best tasting cashews under the sun!
As CEO of Sunshine Nut Company, I press forward relentlessly growing our operations in the US and Mozambique, while sharing our story all over the world. My wife, Terri, oversees all our philanthropic work as the Director of Social Impact and spends her days spreading love to the most needy in our community.
We hope when you buy our cashews, you not only taste the difference in freshness and quality, but also find hope in knowing that you are making a difference in the lives of the poor and orphaned in Mozambique.
Providing hope truly never tasted so good!
Don Larson
Founder & CEO of Sunshine Nut Co.
]]>Though Mozambique’s urban areas are ever-growing, over 75% of the country remains in extremely rural settings. The soil is conducive to significant agricultural productivity but years of drought, floods, insecurity and corruption have forced most farmers to continue to produce on only a subsistence level. While Mozambique used to be the world’s top exporter of cashews, the industry crumbled when the country fell into a civil war lasting two decades after gaining independence from Portugal in 1975. Many other industries in the country followed suit, forcing able citizens to emigrate to neighboring countries to look for jobs. Even to this day, it is common to find families where the father lives in another country with a separate family, and only comes home to visit once a year. This phenomenon has severely damaged the family structure in Mozambique, causing young people in entire villages to grow up without a strong male influence.
However, despite these conditions, cashew farming is one of the most common and reliable agricultural activities for farmers who remain in the village because the Mozambican climate is ideal for the tree’s fruit. For over one million rural farmers, the growth of the cashew industry in Mozambique is crucial to their economic well being. The past few years have shown increased demand for the product, giving rise to a revival of abandoned factories and a many more trees being planted.
Once the 3rd poorest nation in the world, Mozambique has recently made strides of economic improvement, but increasing levels of debt continue to hinder significant growth. It has one of the highest birth rates in the world, yet it also maintains a similarly high mortality rate. Over 45% of the population is under the age of 15, and some sources estimate that 10% of Mozambique’s population is orphaned.
It was in these conditions that Sunshine Nut Company planted roots in Mozambique. We celebrate the beauty and small joys of this nation daily, while ensuring every aspect of our business and philanthropic work targets and strengthens the needs of the country we now call home.
]]>We were introduced to these three young orphans through a Sunshine Nut Co. employee. When we met them, they shared with us a horrific story of their father’s sudden death and their mother’s suicide, all within one year. The children were left to live with their uncle who had neither the means nor the space to support them. From this encounter, we left with a desire to “do something” – and from that desire came our Sunshine Houses.
Our Sunshine Houses pair widows or abandoned older women with orphans to create a loving and positive home environment. The widows are caretakers of the children and given a monthly allotment for their living expenses as well as what is needed for the medical and educational needs of the children. Many employees of Sunshine Nut Co. remain a large part of the children’s lives relationally, as well as members of the children’s biological family.
]]>Sunshine Approach Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit charity organization operating in Mozambique, Africa. Its purpose is to make a difference in the lives of the poor and orphaned by supporting and implementing projects that impact their standard of living. Funds to complete these projects are provided by donors and The Sunshine Nut Company, a cashew production company also located in Mozambique. The Sunshine Nut Company was founded on a focus towards “others” by employing adult orphans and committing 90% of its net proceeds to supporting agricultural development, caring for orphans and vulnerable children, and supporting new food processing companies that share the same vision. Don Larson, CEO and founder of Sunshine Nut Company, and his wife, Terri Larson, formed The Sunshine Approach Foundation. Terri is the Executive Director and President of The Sunshine Approach Foundation. The Larsons have lived in Mozambique since 2011 and directly oversee the foundation’s activities.
The Sunshine Approach Foundation and the Sunshine Nut Company are both dedicated to helping those in need…in a way that lifts them out of poverty to lives transformed with purpose and dignity. Sunshine Nut Company has committed to giving 60% of its profits to The Sunshine Approach Foundation to further its purposes. Our work as a foundation focuses on providing for the basic needs of people- medical care, education, hygiene, food, clean water, clothing, etc. The foundation partners with other well-known and established non-profits that share the same vision. This collaboration creates a stronger platform to achieve shared goals. Additionally, the foundation implements new projects in unmet areas of need. The foundation is also partnering with for-profit companies to accept funds and materials. We invite you to join us in our mission, whether you are an individual or represent a company, by donating funds or purchasing Sunshine Nut Company products (available in South Africa and in major retailers in the United States). Every amount helps and makes a difference.
The vision of Sunshine Approach Foundation is to work in conjunction with the Sunshine Nut Company to improve the lives of the poor, vulnerable and orphaned in Africa. We will accomplish this vision by supporting and implementing projects designed to improve and transform lives. We desire to reach the poorest of the poor and lift them out of poverty by providing them with dignity, hope, and a future. We believe that the poor living in impoverished, third-world conditions are not living the lives God intended for them to experience. Our goal is to show God’s love to the poor by being His hands and feet as we banish poverty in the areas in which we have reach and influence.
As the charitable giving arm of the Sunshine Nut Company, the Sunshine Approach Foundation will distribute the giving of the company’s pledge of 60% distributed profits to improve the lives of the poor, vulnerable and orphaned in Africa. Donations from others are also received and distributed by our foundation. The donations from these two entities enable us to provide living expenses, food, uniforms, medical needs, and daily necessities for orphaned and abandoned children in children’s centers, vulnerable children in the communities, and for children in Sunshine Homes where orphaned children are paired up with widows or vulnerable, abandoned women to care for them. We also implement programs in communities, schools, and children’s centers, as well as for the employees of our factory(medical, educational, agricultural) that we plan, fund, and oversee, often in conjunction with other foundations, businesses, and universities. Our targeted population group covers a wide range of people from orphaned and vulnerable children to young men and women to the elderly.
]]>It wasn’t an immediate decision. During my time as Director of Cocoa Operations at Hershey, I traveled to developing nations to source cocoa and witnessed the effects of extreme poverty firsthand. I had worked for years as the go-to “turnaround guy” at Hershey solving seemingly insurmountable problems in varying departments. This role led me to a problem that truly felt impossible – but that didn’t stop me from wanting to solve it.
In 2007, I turned down a major career move and left my corporate life for a spiritual journey to discover God’s true purpose for my life. It was in this season of listening and waiting that God spoke to me with clarity that was almost audible – saying, “Go and build food factories in developing nations to bring lasting economic transformation.” Through prayer and solitude, I then developed the Sunshine Approach business model, focusing on transforming lives at every level of the business. Not long after, I was led to Mozambique and its abundance of amazing cashews to start this grand adventure. Faced with a calling I had little desire to fulfill, I chose to be obedient. My wife and I sold everything we owned and moved our family to Mozambique.
Since we moved to Mozambique in 2011, we have found our own lives transformed. In the past nine years, we have built a world-class food factory hiring primarily adult orphans. We have developed relationships with orphanages and other community organizations throughout Mozambique where we support and develop projects with 90% of our profits. In 2014, we landed on US shelves and today, we have an all-African staff of 30 producing the best tasting cashews under the sun!
My wife, Terri, oversees all our philanthropic work as the Director of Social Impact and spends her days spreading love to the most needy in our community.
We hope when you buy our cashews, you not only taste the difference in freshness and quality, but also find hope in knowing that you are making a difference in the lives of the poor and orphaned in Mozambique.
Providing hope truly never tasted so good!
Don Larson
Founder & CEO of Sunshine Nut Co.
]]>My son and I just spent nearly a week in the cyclone ravaged area of Beira, Mozambique. We drove 2 days on treacherous roads to deliver medicines. We have friends who live there and do medical work, and with the cyclone their inventories were depleted and the need was great.
The disaster was catastrophic. There appeared to not be a single home that wasn’t damaged in the storm. The loss of life is significant – much greater than what is being reported. Disease will continue to escalate due to the conditions. Relief teams from around the world are there. Malaria and cholera cases are rising but with time and money, they will be brought under control. It is just a matter of time and money. We delivered mostly malaria medication and test kits along with provisions for treating cholera. The international response was heartwarming – government, faith-based, NGOs, and many companies like our Sunshine Nut Company all responded to the call during crisis.
But what happens after the crisis? I couldn’t help thinking about the life of these Mozambican people. What really made my eyes tear was the destruction to the businesses in the area. The jobs that businesses create are the lifeblood of transformation. But that lifeblood of business is so inadequate – even more so now with the damage inflicted by the cyclone. Jobs create wealth and the ability to prosper. The destruction I observed was mostly because of poor home construction brought about by poverty. Most cement homes were still intact and will recover quickly. The houses made of mud, stick, and straw were annihilated leaving possibly hundreds of thousands homeless. They are without hope.
My hope is for the international community to invest outside of times of crisis to bring employment. My wife and I moved our family to Mozambique 8 years ago to build the Sunshine Nut Company. The primary reason for our move was to create jobs – because a job solves many fundamental issues such as hunger, shelter, sickness, but mostly it stops stagnation.
The cashew company we opened provides jobs for 50 people. These 50 jobs that roast, season, and package cashews create the need for 1,000 jobs in the rural communities at a factory which shells the cashews. Surrounding that shelling factory are 50,000 smallholder farming families that provide their entire annual cashew crop to the shelling factory for just Sunshine Nut Company’s needs. All these lives are positively affected by just one business. Think about how prosperity multiplies with new businesses like this being created.
When I became the Director of Cocoa Operations back in 2004, the Hershey Company sent me to Africa to survey the cocoa crops. What I saw on the ground had a lasting impact on me. I saw a people group who had the ability to thrive, but they did not have the resources, the knowledge, and the access to markets to take advantage of the opportunity. My family sold everything we owned in 2011 and moved to Mozambique, Africa. We started up Sunshine Nut Company with the intent of making a premium roasted cashew to be sold in the world’s finest retailers. We create markets for smallholder farmers; we emphasize native employment; we operate at the peak of excellence; and we give 90% of the company’s shareholder distributions back to the poor, widowed, and orphaned where we live. We don’t create dependence and entitlement with hand-outs – we create hope, opportunity, and transformation with employment.
There are many reasons why we give back 90% of shareholder distributions. The primary reason is that it takes the emphasis away from maximizing shareholder profits and shifts that emphasis to stakeholder profits. We can concentrate on what is right and just in our mission to bring about lasting economic transformation. Whatever ends up as profit we spend mostly on transformative projects through our philanthropic arm – the Sunshine Approach Foundation. It also helps throughout the value chain when people know we are not there to capitalize on people groups that have been taken advantage of for generations but to help them. Our relationship with the government is improving as trust is being built. We are there as a force for good – allowing the Mozambican people to flourish.
There was no flourishing in Beira the past two weeks, there was only survival. The international community camped in Beira is responding with medical and food aid to allow people to survive. But there comes a point where supplying aid goes from being beneficial to becoming detrimental. We have seen the results these past 8 years with the continuous free ‘aid’ that comes from more developed parts of the world. Whether it’s food, medicine, supplies, used clothing and shoes – it many times builds a barrier to progress. These hand-outs build dependency, entitlement, and a feeling of worthlessness. We try to counter these things with our creation of jobs resulting in independence, the dignity to earn, and the satisfaction of self-transformation.
I spent the first half of my life transforming myself – acquiring education, wealth, and position. I had a spiritual awakening at my mid-point that shifted my focus to living for others. The internal feeling of satisfaction that you are contributing in some small way to make the world a better place is far better than any material possession or status you may acquire. Sadly, most spend their lives in pursuit of the former to never gain the wisdom to realize the latter. There are catastrophic Beiras all around the world – some much closer to where each of us live than we realize. Getting involved in those communities to create opportunities for others to thrive and flourish is the secret to lasting transformation, but it is also the true secret to an abundant life for ourselves.
We pride ourselves with a slogan on the front of each cashew package that says: “Hope Never Tasted So Good”. If more people shifted their focus from self to others, their contributions would bring hope in the form of not just taste, but sight, sound, smell, and touch as well. There is no limit to what a human being can accomplish when properly motivated. My hope is that those who have realized human flourishment will turn to help others be given the opportunity to flourish themselves. I’ve had the fortune of learning helping others is the best motivation around.
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