The Poco a Poco Children's Diner in San Pedro Itzicán Ricon area
Poco a Poco's Children's Diner moved in 2023 from our old office in San Pedro, initially to the terrace area at Anita's home. Here Anita organized feeding more than 120 children, five days a week for either breakfast or lunch.
This location was not ideal in the long term because of security issues for Anita, so the Children's Diner moved to our new Community Center just across the road. (Our inauguration event was held on May 6.) It's wonderful to see the new dining area, with the new chairs and tables that Empressa Oxxo donated to us.
Anita hoped initially that she could find organizations that would provide enough food for the children, but as more and more kids came to eat, she has found these donations somewhat irregular and not enough for all the children who are now attending. So Poco a Poco try to raise funds to cover some of the food costs. And we look for regular donors to help with this.
It's important that the food is nutritious and healthy - which of course costs money.
At the end of May 2024, there were 180 children eating a meal, five days a week.
Since July 2024, there are now over 200 children being fed (five days a week).
It costs a lot of money to feed this many meals to over 200 children, five days a week.
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Poco a Poco contributes over 6,000 pesos a week to pay towards food, for fruits and vegetables, and meat for the meals.
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Anita gets delivery of food from some Guadalajara organizations, but she has to pay for the transport.
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We spend 880 pesos a week on tortillas, and
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The water 19 liter garrafons cost 665 pesos a week (for water based drinks for the children).
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Then there is the cost of gas for the truck to get supplies picked up - 1,000 pesos a week.
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We do get some donations of food, but meat is expensive and needs to be fresh.​
Our grateful thanks to Fundación Querer y Hacer, German Hernández, Grupo Oxxo, the Chicken Chicks & Roosters, Puritan Poultry, and many others who donate food or money for food.
Donations towards Food are always needed so that we can continue feeding children. Given that many of these children only have one meal a day, they are always hungry.
The kids kitchens that were initially set up and organized by Anita, are now run by CreSer A.C. (Grow, Create, Believe). They receive funding from Foodbank Lakeside towards the cost of the food for those kitchens. They also receive funds to distribute despensas (food packages) for renal patients and to the elderly.
CreSer leaders are teaching permaculture and many other exciting programs to educate people in the community. We appreciate what they are doing to help the communities.
An estimated 70% of children in the San Pedro Itzicán area suffer from malnutrition, which is a major risk factor for kidney disease (which is prevalent in the area).
When we started feeding the children in 2020, an amazing team of volunteer mothers in San Pedro did the cooking, feeding more than 100 children, five days a week. When the program grew to other locations, stipends are now paid to the cooks. It's a lot of work.
During early Covid, when things shut down completely in mid-March 2020, people were desperate for food. Poco a Poco provided despensas (basic food supplies) to over 1,900 families - each week. Thanks to the support from FoodBank Lakeside and many generous donors, the despensas (food packages) we were giving out each week, included 1 kg each of rice, beans, lentils, as well as fruits and vegetables. FoodBank Lakeside still continue to help the renal patients with food despensas. When people started to go back to work in August 2020, the focus returned to the needs of the children.
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Of course we had not budgeted for the crisis but we did the best we could in the circumstances and continue to do so.
One special group donates towards buying chickens for the food. The group is called the "Chicken Chicks & Roosters". These donors generously pre-pay to pay for chickens to be purchased for the meals.
Our grateful thanks to these donors and Rita Phillips and Sandi Lindsay, who coordinate the Los Sabinos "Chicken Chicks and Roosters". But we need more funding to include adding chicken to the weekly meals ... and we need more Chicken Chicks & Roosters!
You can appreciate we need regular donations towards paying for the cost of food.
If you wish to support this initiative, please consider supporting the Poco a Poco San Pedro's Childrens' Diner.
Many people in these communities are facing many medical issues - especially renal failure. The most usual cause for this appears to be: 1. genetics, 2. pollution, 3. malnutrition and 4. lack of clean drinking water.
We can't do much about genetics (these small communities have many inter-family marriages), and pollution is probably due to the water from the lake where they bathe and drink the water (if they have no money for bottled water). Soda drinks are frequently drunk instead of healthier drinks. The water quality in the town's water is known to have heavy metals and people do not trust what they get from hoses connected to some of the homes. Sanitation and water treatment processes are not reliable so the water, garbage, etc., runs into the lake. Where people bathe.
There is widespread malnutrition. Young children, if not provided with enough protein and fresh vegetables or fruit, are very susceptible to renal failure. Dental health is also important for healthy heart and kidneys.
Families who receive food and despensas, are encouraged to "give back" by volunteering in their community - because we do believe that "A Hand up not a hand out" is the best way to go. Even during Covid, this continued. People helped clear areas of garbage or helped with other projects. It was a way for the people to find pride - that it wasn't just a "hand out".
A report from the University of Guadalajara that came out in late 2020 estimated that 75% of children living in the San Pedro Itzicán area will have renal problems. This is the link to the article in Spanish. This is tragic.
The Children's' Dining program has become a safe place for the children to socialize and now, becoming a place of education too. See how we are evolving into providing more education to these children...
