Ag Initiative/Humanitarian Seedlifts to Feed the Needy


NEW! [List of 1997 Recipient Groups]

The Agricultural Initiative organizes yearly distribution of donated US vegetable and flower seeds (48 tons to over 40 cities in 1995 alone) to especially needy segments of the Russian population (invalids, veterans, orphanages, pensioners, schools, etc.).

In 1997, AgI staff distributed more than 8 tons of seed donated by the Petoseed and Pan American Seed companies to more than 300 nonprofit organizations serving the disadvantaged in Russia. This year's shipment brings CCI's seedlift total (since 1992) to more than 97 tons, without a single reported instance of resale or misuse by the recipient groups.

The American companies listed below have played a vital role in helping NIS citizens avoid hunger. CCI urges you, the websurfer, to visit these sites and, more importantly, PATRONIZE THESE COMPANIES in recognition of their socially-responsible contributions to food security among the needy in Russia.

1997 Major Donors:

Petoseed Company, Inc.

Geo. J. Ball LogoPan American Seed Company

Past Contributors:

W. Atlee Burpee & Co.

 Asgrow Seed Company

Geo. J. Ball LogoGeo. J. Ball, Inc.

Shepherd's Garden Seeds

Other Contributors Include:



ÒThanks to your help, we were able to conserve considerable resources that were used to restore ruined monasteries. Produce from the Monastery's farm also supplies a soup kitchen from the needy, where more than 600 people receive three meals a day."
Father Superior Grigory, Trinity-Sergiev Cathedral, Sergiev Posad.


ÒThe germination of, and harvests from these seeds exceeded all our expectations. Even in this summer's unfavorable weather, when almost no one in the Moscow area was able to grow cucumbers, cabbages, carrots & onions, the invalids who planted American seeds collected a good harvest of these crops not only from their garden plots, but also from their windowsills, which is very timely support to their meager food allowances."
M. Lebedev, Ministry of Social Protection of the Russian Federation

Recipient Groups - CCI's 1997 Humanitarian Seedlift

St. Petersburg Recipients

(Detailed in a July 14 email from Oleg Moldakov, Project Coordinator, CCI-St. Petersburg)
  1. Societies for Invalids: The "Consonance" Fund for Cultural-Enlightenment Work among Invalids, the Society for Cooperation to Invalids, St. Petersburg branches of the All-Russian Society of Invalids - Frunzenskiy, Moscovskiy, Zelenogorskiy, Tsentralniy & Krasnogvardeiskiy regions.
  2. Societies for the Blind - The School for Vocational Rehabilitation to the Visually Impaired, the Vasiliostrovski Branch of the All-Russian Society for the Blind.
  3. Veterans' Groups - The Committee of the Leningrad War Veterans Association; Council of Rocket Forces War Veterans; The Fund for Social Assistance to Servicemen; War Veterans Clubs at the factories "Trubnikov Bor," "Sinyavino," and "Izhorets" (over 800 families); Veterans Groups of the Naval Academy, Petrogradskiy, Tsentralniy, Vybirgskiy, Moscovskiy, Pushkinskiy, Vasiliostrovskiy, and Petrodvortsoviy regions, and cities Petergof and Lomonosov; (others).
  4. Societies of Survivors of the Blockade of Leningrad - the St. Petersburg Committee of the "Blockade Children-900," The Charitable Society of Survivors of the Leningrad Blockade.
  5. Hospitals: Pokrovskaya hospital, Childrens Hospital #6, City Hospital #21
  6. "Children-Ecology-Society" Association, Childrens Ecology Center, Ecological Club "Klyukva" [Berry]
  7. Holy Trinity Cathedral and Monastery of the Alexander Nevskiy Patriarchy, Christian-Baptist Association
  8. Agrarian University
  9. Unions and Associations of Private Farmers (14 listed)
  10. Center for Alternative Technologies - has 3.5 hectares of their own land where 150 schoolkids work to produce crops for their sanitorium and a tuberculosis hospital
  11. Gardening Societies - 13 listed, about 6,500 families total membership.
  12. . Employment Training Centers:
    • St. Petersburg City - for 100 people
    • Kronshtadskiy Region - for 100 people
    • Pushkinsky Center - for the Association "Multi-Children Families" (about 450 families) and for 250 unemployed vegetable specialists;
    • Admiralteiskiy Center - for 100 people
    • Pavlovskoye Center - for 60 people and for the Pavlovsk Social Protection Agency (for 900 people, including the Pavlovsk Societies of Invalids, Victims of Repression, Multi-Children Single Mothers, and War Veterans)
    • Department of Social Protection of the Lodeinopolsky region.
  13. Schools:
    • Gardening School "Your Garden"
    • Middle School #272
    • School #241 of the Admiralteiskiy region
    • Professional-Technical Lycee #21 of the city of Polessk (Kaliningrad oblast)
    • School of Landscaping at the Prinorskiy Victory Park
    • Kindergarten #13
  14. Vavilov Research Institute, and the Gardening Club of its Horticultural Institute
  15. Scientists Guilds - Gorkovo and the Academy of Scientists
  16. Scientific-Research Institutes - for the needy and veterans on their staffs:
    • Plant Protection Institute - for 120 families
    • Economic Research Institute - for 140 families
    • Institute of Hydrotechnics and Melioration - for 50 families
    • Institute of Electrification and Mechanization of Agriculture - for 320 families
    • Institute of Microbiology - for 180 families
    • Agrophysical Institute - for 70 families
    • Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat Institute -for 360 families
    • Arctic Research Institute - for 20 families
    • Academy of Sciences Center - for 20 families
  17. Orphanages: St. Petersburg Orphanage # 31 of the Moscovskiy Region, and Orphanage #17 of the Kirovskiy region
  18. Union of Professional Theater performers

Moscow Recipients

  • (reported in a May 20, 1997 e-mail message from Natasha Scribunova)
  1. All-Russian Association of Veterans, 200 kg
  2. City of Sergiev Posad, 585 kg divided between
    • Trinity-Sergius Monastery (for soup kitchen)
    • Society of Invalids
    • Society of Veterans
    • School for Deaf & Blind Children
  3. Ministry of Social Protection for the Moscow region, 705 kg (they are disseminating seeds among 147 Houses for elderly)
  4. All-Russian Association for the Blind, 310 kg
  5. Labor Department, 18.62 kg (they are disseminating seeds among technical schools for disabled people in Moscow)
  6. Hospital for Mentally Disabled People in Vere'sk (Moscow oblast), 95 kg
  7. All-Russian Association of Disabled People, 540 kg
  8. All-Russian Movement of Rural Women, 149.5 kg (they are disseminating seeds among farmers who support homes & hospitals for orphans)

Each Recipient group has signed an agreement with CCI to:

  • not sell the donated seeds
  • distribute the seeds among the most needy within their organizations
  • furnish a detailed report to CCI about how the seeds were used.

In five years of humanitarian seed distribution (total of 97 tons), CCI has not received a single report of donated seeds being resold. Groups looking for assistance in ensuring the proper use of humanitarian aid can contact Program Director Will Easton at 415-561-7777.

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