What is Vertice?
VERTICE is a meeting place.
The place where lives, knowledge, dreams, resources, the countryside, the city, and different countries CONVERGE.
WHY?
To construct a planet where we all fit.
We are the point where each of us works for the collective.
We cultivate a garden of people, from the community and for the community.
People are the most important source of capital in our project: people are the ones that possess the potential to overcome any situation. The problems of each person can be solved more easily with the support of others within the community.
Vertice mediates and supports people to acquire the abilities and the resources for a sustainable livelihood, in which they have access to healthy food, working capital, and the knowledge necessary to overcome poverty. We aim to motivate and reaffirm community processes that bring more people to self-sufficiency and food sovereignty.
HOW?
With our feet on the ground,
and our hands raised to the heavens.
Our driving force comes from the conviction that we are working together to construct the best possible world for each human being.
We are a network that draws in and connects human beings to resolve situations of poverty, hunger, and inequality.
PLACES FOR ENCOUNTER
Fairs, cultural centers, cafes, restaurants
We accompany people in situations of poverty, so they may define their own path and thus generate the income necessary for a dignified life.
Acompañamos a personas en situación de pobreza, para que definan su camino y así generen el ingreso necesario para vivir dignamente.
EXCHANGE
Of ideas, of talent, of resources
Vertice promotes microloans for entrepreneurship, solutions for child malnutrition, and networks for fair trade of agricultural products.
FOOD PRODUCTION
FAIR PRICES TO AGROECOLOGICAL PRODUCERS
Processing into sauces and jams, preparation of dishes with local ingredients and sale in our cafes.
EDUCATION
CONSULTANCIES, PEDAGOGICAL INNOVATIONS, AND CURRICULUM PLANNING
Formation of responsible consumers, meals for children in schools and training programs, economic support to encourage girls’ school attendance.
FOOD
VERTICE FOR RESPONSIBLE TRADE
Network of agroecological farmers, network of responsible consumers.
“NOURRIR” PROGRAM
Vertice, offers a supplemental meal to school-age children and youth living in the area of Kiroty Market and the Kaporo Rails neighborhood of Conakry, Guinea. These children come from families living in situations of vulnerability, and would otherwise receive only one meal per day.
Choose one of our lines of action
Where?
Through skies and seas
Vertice has expanded its geographical and cultural horizons, maintaining a presence in Colombia, the USA, and Guinea.
Guinea
In Guinea, Vertice has led programs around reforestation, menstrual hygiene and education, food security for vulnerable families, and microcredit for entrepreneurship.
Colombia
In Colombia, through our VERTICE FOR RESPONSIBLE TRADE program, we have facilitated the purchase of more than 1000 agroecological harvests, managing logistics to promote food security and justice for producers and consumers.
USA
In the United States, we are conceiving novel responses to the massive consumption of ultraprocessed foods, and the health problems deriving from an unbalanced diet.
Actions
WE WEAVE TOGETHER THE COUNTRYSIDE AND THE CITY.
Through initiatives for nutrition and wellbeing, sharing spaces for meeting and exchange.
RESPONSIBLE COMMERCE
In Vertice we have explored alternatives for farmers and consumers, while participating in the reduction of rural poverty.
With the project “Vertice para el Comercio Responsable” in Colombia, we have managed to coordinate more than 80 peasant families in Boyaca and Santander departments, to offer and distribute their harvests to consumers in Tunja and Bogota, thus building a bridge of solidarity between the countryside and the city.
The produce included in the “Comercio Responsable” market basket is raised with agroecological techniques that guarantee stewardship of the soil, water, and air, thus reducing the negative environmental effects of food production. The harvested products are sent to Vertice’s processing facility, from whence online orders from families in Tunja and Bogota are packed and distributed. This business model, without intermediaries, allows farmers to receive three times the money they would obtain from traditional marketing channels, thus increasing their incomes and reducing rural poverty.
For their part, consumers receive fresh, nutritious food, in the knowledge that the producers receive a fair price for their work, and that the social fabric is strengthened between the countryside and the city.
Nourrir
In the framework of the “Nourrir” initiative, Vertice, offers a supplemental meal to school-age children and youth living in the area of Kiroty Market and the Kaporo Rails neighborhood of Conakry, Guinea. These children come from families living in situations of vulnerability, and would otherwise receive only one meal per day. Under this initiative, Vertice purchases from female-run farmer cooperatives the ingredients necessary to prepare and deliver 40 breakfasts in the Kiroty Market, and 40 lunches to children attending the Mind Leaps after-school program.
Under this initiative, Vertice purchases from female-run farmer cooperatives the ingredients necessary to prepare and deliver 40 breakfasts in the Kiroty Market, and 40 lunches to children attending the Mind Leaps after-school program.
With the support of local community organizations, some 800 breakfasts and 640 lunches are provided every month, thus reducing hunger and improving food security in the neighborhood.
MANJARES CASEROS
The kitchen is a meeting place par excellence; here we cook not only food but also conversations and ideas that lead to projects. It is the site where we add value to life, to relationships, and to dishes.
Vertice’s common kitchen is made available for the network of “Comercio Responsable” producers. Under the label of “Manjares Caseros” (“Homemade Delicacies”), fresh products are converted into sauces, jams, and other canned goods. These processed or transformed products are offered at a fair price that reverts largely to the farmers themselves, generating higher incomes for them.
These products also comprise part of the offering to consumers of the “Comercio Responsable” market basket, whether they place online orders, or shop directly at the Vertice Shop or Vertice Cafe.
We add value by using local ingredients and sharing ancestral cooking techniques.
VÉRTICE SHOP
The Vertice Shop will open in order to continue building this community around sustainability and life.
Our shop is a showcase for local production, where you can find agroecological products such as fruits, vegetables, breads, cheeses, sauces, jams, and much more.
VÉRTICE café
Vertice Cafe will always be a good excuse to meet up and share with friends. Here you will find the best coffee varieties of the region, together with the most delicious preparations and recipes based on fresh, local ingredients.
Microcredits
In Guinea, Vertice has led programs about microcredit for entrepreneurship
History
In the flow of conversation and the warmth of the home fire
What is the point of bringing together our different areas of knowledge?
In a family meeting in 2005, we challenged ourselves with this question: Aside from family ties, what common ground do we share as professionals from the different areas of agriculture, teaching, and communication?
The answers posed a challenge that showed a desire to converge, to work for the common good, and to thus leave a world in which each person has a place. A vertex, VÉRTICE.
As the idea began to germinate, four branches sprouted:
How can we become more involved with rural areas?
How can we activate and foster community processes?
How to transfer and utilize teaching practices for people outside of the formal educational system?
How do we communicate our ideas to connect others to them?
Since these first discussions, we have followed a long path: we sought fair payment for farmers that care for and feed the planet; reduction of hunger and poverty; empowerment for women; and strengthening of intentional human networks.
We seek in the near future to further integrate ourselves into local, national, and global networks of people and institutions that struggle to achieve the best possible world for each human being.
JOIN US
Participate in our initiatives
We are seeking people that are inspired by this idea of our network, and want to support it.
WRITE US!
Your presence and participation are very important for us.
Leave a message in the form, or write us at sctorresl@corpovertice.org
Or search for us on the internet
dona ahora
Si lo que hacemos te inspira participa con una donación. El dinero se usará para seguir promoviendo nuestras causas alrededor de la superación del hambre y la pobreza.
