In January of 2013, Kwami Williams and Emily Cunningham found themselves working in rural Ghana by different paths.
Emily was studying development economics at Harvard, frustrated by the disconnect between the information in her textbooks and realities in the developing world.
Born and raised in Ghana, Kwami and his family immigrated to the US at the age of 8. By 2012, he was living the American Dream having graduated from MIT with a degree in aerospace engineering and starting a career at NASA when a mentor challenged him to return to his native Ghana.
It was here that the pair were introduced to the moringa tree. NGOs encouraged farmers to cultivate moringa for the nutritional benefits - gram for gram, the leaves of the tree contain more iron than spinach, more protein than yogurt, and more calcium than milk. But farmers didn’t have a way to earn a living cultivating moringa - no access to market.
So Kwami and Emily took the unused part of the tree - the seeds- back to their labs at MIT and figured out how to cold-press the moringa seeds into a nourishing oil that outperforms argan, jojoba, and shea.
Together, we set about building True Moringa with the mission of doing wellness differently. We believe that being healthy should be simple, affordable, and accessible to all.
We envision a future in which all ingredients sourced by skincare and wellness brands provide transformative impact to the people and planet that produce them.
Plant a tree in your name here and search your order number here to see where your tree is planted and learn more about the farmer who benefits
We take a three pronged approach to ethical production through our farming, manufacturing, and product development
Your skincare is powered by solar! Our farm is home to West Africa's largest solar-powered irrigation project. Moringa trees are drought resistant, require little water, and capture 20x the carbon of other vegetation. We use a regenerative agriculture approach to protect soil health and increase biodiversity.
Community members who typically lack access to land are allotted a plot on our farm and given access to irrigation, organic certification, agricultural training, and wrap around services like child care, scholarship funding, health insurance, and more. These programs increased womens' participation in lucrative tree crop farming from 0% to 40%.
True Moringa Farmers organize themselves into small groups of 30 members to form Village Savings and Loan Associations - micro banks through which members learn financial literacy skills, save their earnings from their moringa farms, and lend to other members at low interest rates. For every $1 invested in VSLAs, $10 of community wealth is generated.
Too often, commodities like cocoa and coffee are extracted from developing countries and all of the value addition is done in western countries. 98% of our team is from Ghana and based in Ghana full time where we cold press our moringa oil and mill our organic moringa powder. By creating jobs and adding value locally, we are shifting this paradigm.
Too often commodities like cocoa and coffee are extracted from developing countries and all of the value addition is done in western countries. 98% of our team is from Ghana and based in Ghana full time where we cold press our moringa oil and mill our organic moringa powder. By creating jobs and adding value locally, we are shifting this paradigm.
Our award winning formulas are always vegan, paraben free, sulfate free, but they are also packed with superfood nutrients backed by science and centuries of local knowledge.
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