We are asking for gently used athletic shoes to help fight poverty, hunger, and global warming.
The MORE Foundation Group is a US non-profit organization, currently in our twenty-third year. We collect gently used athletic shoes for re-use and for funding reforestation. We purchase seeds, establish nurseries, and teach/promote agroforestry. Essentially, MORE implements self-sustaining tree farming.
Currently engaged in reforestation projects in Ghana, we have been establishing nurseries in protected school compounds where students are educated in the use of the MORE Farming System. We germinate and distribute hundreds of thousands of fruit-bearing and income-producing saplings to these nurseries each year. We donate trees to isolated villages as well.
Of the one billion pairs of shoes dumped in landfills each year, we only need a few hundred thousand of those to reach a tipping point. Villagers seek opportunities to prosper, conserve natural habitat, and regenerate regions that have been severely damaged.
Along with seeds and sapling distribution, schools and villages receive the necessary tools to increase productivity. The integrated MORE Farming System includes mentoring in small farm business management, rain forest resource conservation, capacity analysis, community development, and Co-op setup. We also help provide free medical assistance.
Kindest regards,
Jim Riordan, Director
NEVER BEFORE HAS SO MUCH BEEN ACCOMPLISHED WITH SO LITTLE
Our Approach
Modular
MORE Systems are micro-enterprise models designed to increase small farm productivity while creating a positive regional impact. Modular MORE farms are adaptable to almost any climate and allow for constant growth while accommodating periodic economic shifts and climate change. MORE Systems utilize portable components. Developed MORE farms are expandable sustainable eco-loops.
Organic
MORE Systems leave no negative foot print and require almost no energy import. Organic means no chemicals of any kind nor genetically modified seeds. All organic fertilizers and pesticides are locally sourced. Solar power eliminates the need for fossil fuels. Farm produced bio-fuels will sustain expansion.
Regenerative
The whole becomes greater then the sum of the parts on a developed MORE Farm. Bio-diversity enhancement strengthens, builds and protects natural resources. MORE Farms offer accelerated permaculture by utilizing natural resources with a vertically integrated approach.
Environment
A MORE Farm is an integrated expandable sustainable eco-loop natural living system. MORE Systems are small business micro-farm environments. Each modular system within each MORE Farm enhances the overall environment. East MORE Farm assists in the healing of the natural and global environment. The MORE Systematic approach mimics nature.
Staff
Jim Riordan
Founder and Director
After a thirty year career as a builder/developer, Jim founded Perpetual Prosperity Pumps Foundation in 2004 to provide appropriate technology transfer for small rural farmers in Africa. Since 1980 Jim has been researching small scale food production models and irrigation technology ideally suited for the poor rural farmer. He has visited many emerging economies and been to Africa seven times since 1999.
The Miracle Pump Irrigation System and the integrated MORE Growing System developed by Jim and associates is currently being taught by the Kumasi Institute for Tropical Agriculture, located in Ghana West Africa.
Jim is passionate about demonstrating small scale farm models that sustain yields ten times greater then traditional African agricultural practice. He believes that with access to micro-credit, training, and appropriate technology, small farmers and villages can grow themselves out of poverty.
Katherine Ware
VP of Media and Communications
Kathy hails from the University of Delaware’s Center for Drug and Health Studies where she coordinated statewide health-related surveys throughout the public school system. Critical studies included the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the Delaware Department of Health’s Youth Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Survey. A champion for environmental responsibility and preserving our children’s and grandchildren’s futures, Kathy has already dedicated many years in an effort to combat our global climate problems. She has come to be a part of the MORE team to lend her organizational skills, energy, and passion to our goal of world reforestation.
Brendan Feeley
Board of Advisors
Brendan Feeley began his professional career in Engineering in the 1970’s after earning his Master’s degree from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. He moved to London, England where he received a postgraduate fellowship in Engineering at the City University. Brendan spent twenty years in the corporate world, initially in engineering and later in strategic planning and management, in both Europe and the USA. He also earned a graduate degree in Jungian Psychology in 1993 to add to his repertoire.
He is a well known teacher and consultant on the topic of vedic astrology in the Washington, DC area, and he has presented at International conferences since the mid 1990’s. He is a founding member of the Council of Vedic Astrologers (USA), and he has earned the titles of Jyotish Kovid and Jyotish Visharad, which indicate one’s excellence in the subject. His focus is on embodied spirituality, the expression of soul, and the presence of that which is divine and eternal. He believes the world itself and all its challenges become a path to glorious state of Self-Realization. He can be reached at 301-424-6644 or bpfeeley@aol.com.