Sustainable Agriculture and Habitat Restoration in Puerto Rico

Advancing sustainable agriculture and environmental protection has been a central focus of HF’s work in Puerto Rico over the past five years. Working with local environmental organizations, farmers, fishers, climate justice advocates, and community leaders, to date, the Federation has invested nearly 12 million to restore natural habitats, protect critical ecosystems, and strengthen local agriculture and fishing communities on the island. Explore our work below.

Farm and Food Workers Relief (FFWR) Program

In 2022, HF kickstarted the FFWR program that provides one-time relief payments of $600 to 62,900 qualifying farmworkers and meatpacking workers thanks to a two-year, $44.3 million grant administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service.

Since launching in 2022, the Puerto Rico team has distributed more than $3.6 million to 6,000 farmworkers and meatpackers across the archipelago.

Workers who incurred pandemic-related health and safety costs in 19 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are eligible for rewards through the grant.

Fisheries in Puerto Rico

All along Puerto Rico’s coast, fishing associations are important economic contributors to their local communities and provide fresh, affordable seafood for families and businesses. However, the unreliable energy grid and storms often cut power to their buildings, known as fishing villages, which they rely on to refrigerate their daily catch. This spoils their seafood and exacerbates food and economic insecurity.

After Hurricane Maria, HF funded solar energy systems for five fishing villages, and during the extended blackout caused by 2022’s Hurricane Fiona, all five were able to stay powered, which allowed fishermen to store their food during the hurricane as well as continue their operation immediately after the storm.

Since 2018, HF, in collaboration with Conservación ConCiencia, a marine conservation organization, has provided rooftop solar energy to 17 fishing villages with rooftop solar energy and storage, bringing the total to 11 fishing villages that directly benefit more than 150 fisherman and provide food to dozens of restaurants and thousands of residents. These fishing villages now can depend on resilient and renewable energy and will be able to continue operating during power outages.

Revitalizing Puerto Rico’s Coffee Industry

In 2017, Hurricane Maria decimated a key sector of the local economy – Puerto Rico’s coffee industry. Following the hurricane, 80 percent of Puerto Rico’s coffee harvest and trees were destroyed, resulting in an estimated total loss of $85 million in annual revenues for coffee farmers.

HF – with support from the Miranda Family, Puerto Rico Coffee Roasters, Nespresso, Rockefeller Foundation, Starbucks, The Colibrí Foundation and more – launched a three-year initiative to revitalize Puerto Rico’s coffee sector, invested more than $50 million in Puerto Rico’s recovery, funded and collaborated with more than 140 organizations and initiatives across Puerto Rico, led dozens more, and bolstered more than 1,600 small businesses, micro entrepreneurs and farmers. Over the past five years, Hispanic Federation’s main mission focused on empowering and supporting Puerto Rico’s own vision for recovery, resilience and change.ng in an estimated total loss of $85 million in annual revenues for coffee farmers.

As part of the Coffee Revitalization Initiative, over 2 million high quality, locally grown arabica coffee seedlings were distributed to 1,139 smallholder coffee farmers, increasing their economic potential by $6 million dollars at the farm level, and $10 million at the mill level. In addition to new trees, the initiative provided technical training and assistance to more than 1000 farmers in order to elevate practices, production, and quality of the local sector. In 2022, these efforts have helped ramp up production to pre-hurricane levels for the first time since 2016. Watch the video below to learn more about this work.

Big Ideas Challenge

In 2018, Hispanic Federation and Fundación Banco Popular launched the Big Ideas Challenge to spur multi sector collaboration on innovative and visionary social impact projects to address long-term recovery. With $1.4 million in prize money at stake, more than 70 multisector teams collaborated to design and propose big ideas.

Nine semifinalists were selected to present to a panel of judges in October 2018 and three finalists chosen. Four semifinalists each received $25,000 and one honorable mention received a $100,000 prize to seed their ideas. The three finalists each received $150,000 to pilot their ideas over six months, at which point they were re-evaluated by the judges panel. The first-place team, led by Caras con Causa, won $600,000 to develop a Community Laboratory (LabComm) dedicated to environmental sciences as part of a wider strategy of sustainable community development that tackles pollution as well as frequent flooding in areas of Cataño and Guaynabo.

The second-place team, led by CMTAS Yauco, won $450,000 to pilot anaerobic biodigestors in three rural communities. The third-place team, led by the Interamerican University of Barranquitas, won $350,000 to develop the Center for Agriculture Security and Sustainability focused on micropropagation. These finalists are also receiving customized mentoring and support from local and global experts as they implement their ideas.

Meet some of our winners below.