D
ALE BOLTON WAS driving to his
home in suburban Toronto
when he heard the statistic that
changed his life. It was 2004 and the
gregarious pastor was listening to a
lecture about a crisis that was sweep-
ing Africa. According to the speaker,
there were over 34 million orphans on
the continent. “I almost ran into a tree,”
says Bolton. The number was stagger-
ing—the sheer volume of human suf-
fering unimaginable. He couldn’t stop
thinking about it.
At the time, Bolton wasn’t looking
for a new project. He and his wife,
Linda, had spent the previous 20 yearsfounding three different churches in
Ontario. “I was 51. My dad retired at
53,” says Bolton. He was building a sail-
boat in their garage, dreaming about
the Caribbean. “But this thing would
not leave me alone.”
That unignorable statistic started the
Boltons on a journey that eventually
led them to create Organics 4 Orphans
(rebranded last year as Thrive for
Good), a not-for-profit that gives com-
munities the resources and knowledge
to sustainably grow their own crops.
But that mental leap—from orphans
to gardens—didn’t happen immedi-
ately. First, the couple raised moneyA farming project in Africa is helping
communities grow their own food
Planting the Seed
BY Nicholas Hune-Brown
photograph by kailee mandelreader’s digest
10 may 2020
BIG IDEABIG IDEA