In western Kenya, Margaret Simiyu’s flourishing sweetpotatoes
provide more than enough to feed her family. Sweetpotatoes help
mothers like Margaret Simiyu raise healthier kids and improve
their own health It’s lunch time at Margaret Simiyu’s house, and
orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes are on the menu. Three dozen
mothers and children sit outside Margaret’s mud-walled home,
where a community health worker is dishing up mashed
sweetpotatoes while discussing the powerful nutritional punch
packed inside this sunset-colored vegetable. Margaret, 38, needs
little convincing. She’s already seen improvements in her
family’s health since she learned to cultivate orange-fleshed
sweetpotatoes and make them part of her family’s diet. Boosting
nutrition and maternal health Margaret is one of nearly 3,000
women in western Kenya participating in an innovative project
called Mama SASHA (Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health in
Africa), a collaborative effort between PATH and the
International Potato Center. The five-year pro