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Shared History

Some of the earliest evidence of plant cultivation in Panama dates back to around 5000 to 7000 B.C.: corn, squash, cacao, and root crops like cassava. In the early 16th century, Spanish settlers introduced livestock, followed by export crops. American companies, such as United Fruit, expanded the cultivation of export crops, and agrochemical companies spread their products throughout Panama's agricultural sector during the 20th century. Mandela is helping make the 21st century a time when humanity returns to its agricultural roots, based on the indigenous origins of agriculture, building healthy soils where roots nourish crops for the well-being of people, and root our food system in both traditional agroecological practices and new ones.

The History of Mandela

The roots of Mandela run deep. Its founder, Flo Reed, first worked with smallholder farmers in Panama as a Peace Corps volunteer between 1991 and 1993. That experience shaped everything that would come after, including the founding of the nonprofit organization Sustainable Harvest International (SHI) in 1997, which continued to provide training in agroecology to smallholder farmers throughout Panama for over two decades. When, in 2024, the SHI board of directors decided to focus its operations in Honduras, the Panama team found itself at a crossroads. Instead of allowing that work to fade away, they joined forces with Flo to build something new: a social enterprise with the reach, flexibility, and funding model needed to offer more to farmers.

At the end of 2024, a small founding team began meeting in Panama to design the company from scratch. Before committing to a specific model, they did their homework: in January 2025, surveys conducted with 265 consumers and 60 farmers from three communities confirmed what the team had long suspected. Almost all of the surveyed farmers—98%—stated that they'd like to partner with a company like Mandela. Likewise, 84% of consumers said they'd buy from a digital farmers' market like Mandela's "Shared Markets," and 83% expressed willingness to pay the same or even more for food grown by Mandela's farmers.

With that validation in hand, Mandela was established as a "benefit corporation" in the state of Maine in February 2025, followed by the creation of its Panamanian subsidiary, Mandela S.A., in March. Also that month, Mandela organized its first agrotourism experience: a day of agricultural volunteering for 24 high school students from the United States, in collaboration with Vamonos Tours. The experience was so successful that Vamonos decided to join as a future partner and provided an impact loan to help launch Mandela.

The team continued to grow throughout 2025. In April, Liz Castroverde brought her marketing experience and MBA training to the project. By August, Mandela S.A. had already hired its first staff in Panama: Daysbeth López as Agroecology Manager and Liz as Business Manager; additionally, Kellys Lorenzo and Rubiel Pérez were contracted to support the work of connecting with farmers. Impact loans and donations from early supporters were added to the initial investment from Flo, providing the team with the necessary resources to move forward.

On October 17, 2025, Mandela celebrated its official launch at the Hotel Coclé in Penonomé. By November, a first version of the digital marketplace was already operational; likewise, technical assistance to farmers had begun and support for them to purchase seeds and other supplies through Mandela.

In May 2026, Mandela launched a completely redesigned version of Shared Markets, a significant step towards the integrated and scalable model that the founding team set out to build. The work that SHI started in Panama over 25 years ago is more alive than ever.

Cultivating connections that nourish people and the planet through agroecology.

Evolving Together

Based on ancestral agricultural wisdom, lessons from service in the Peace Corps, decades of agroecology training for farmers with Sustainable Harvest International, and the knowledge of collaborators from various walks of life.

May 1991

The farming families of Santa Rita de Antón, Panama welcome Florence (Flo) Reed to their community to teach them about the environment and agroforestry. They may never know how much more they taught her than what she taught them.

Florence Reed planting seedlings in a community tree nursery in the Bella Florida district of Santa Rita in 1992.

May 1997

Flo founds Sustainable Harvest International with an initial program in Honduras, and quickly adds another program in Panama in 1998.

Daysbeth Lopez joins the SHI team in 2006 and soon distinguishes herself as one of the organization's top field trainers in all aspects. While working full-time for SHI, she also earned her college degree.

Abraham Sanchez teaching and learning about growing garden vegetables with (then) SHI field trainer Daybeth Lopez in 2016.
December 2024

Five former members of the SHI Panama team, a consultant, and Flo begin periodic online meetings and occasional in-person meetings to develop the concept of a new social enterprise that will soon be called Mandela.

First in-person meeting in February 2025. Front row: Kellys, Yasmin, and Ediberto. Back row: Rubiel, Flo, Cesar. Absent from the photo: Daysbeth.
August 2025

The first paid staff of Mandela begin working in August 2025, laying the groundwork to start operations later that year.

Launch party for Mandela at the Hotel Coclé in Penonomé on October 17, 2025.