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Less than thirty years ago, family farming in the Mississippi River Delta was a diversified existence. After years of being denied their civil rights and equal treatment among local white farmers, African Americans have been slowly forced out of farming and off land that has been in their family for generations. Thanks in large part to the industrialization of agriculture, plantation farming and unfairly denied loans, a large majority of the Delta's rural poor are dependent on government subsidies in order to survive.

In the Mississippi Delta, which stretches from Cape Girardeau, Missouri to the area just north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, exists poverty unmatched in the rest of the United States. The poverty rate averages 42 percent; unemployment is around 12 percent; and nearly 30 percent of those who live there have less than a ninth-grade education. In this environment, families often are forced to choose between paying for medicine, electricity or buying food. With a lacking infrastructure and a poorly educated workforce, it has been a daunting task for those who have tried to tackle the problem of bringing the Mississippi Delta out of extreme poverty. People who used to go to church for potlucks, now go for food pantry commodities.

Heifer International is beginning to reintroduce livestock in the region and rural gardens to improve the health and nutrition of poor families in the area. Besides reintroduction of livestock, sustaining small minority farms, and food security, the overall goal is to teach families to work together and become self-reliant. Sometimes, livestock alone will not meet the needs of these families, especially in the United States where agriculture market prices are so low. That's why Heifer takes the program one step further, with value-added marketing. Instead of just producing enough for a family's needs, recipients will learn to market their products locally, where fresh produce is hard to find. Heifer's vision is for these families to not only lift themselves out of poverty, but to create and supply new markets where there is a need.

Some of the worst poverty in the world can be found in the Mississippi Delta- yet we are the richest nation in existence. By contributing to or establishing a Delta Endowment you can provide a new future for a region long neglected.