Operation Feed has modified its process to ensure everyone's safety.
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There is an email sent to the Thursday team listing who works each week. The team still bags the food and passes out the despensas. The team is limited to 10 people each week. They are separated into group of 3 at tables which are far apart. We are no longer loading the despensas into each recipient's bag. To keep from handling things, we are simply giving them the pink or blue plastic bag. The recipients aren't entering the restaurant. Everyone is using gloves and wiping down all surfaces.
If you need more information about this process, please email Janine Kirkland at J9design.@mac.com |
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So Much YarnThe Crochet team is doing great. They are selling at events when invited and every Thursday morning at Operation Feed. The women are now making dog collars for the Ranch and wonderful market bags for sale at the Tuesday market.
If you have a special order, send an email to Janine and she will get the right woman to make it for you. We have dresses, sweaters, and stuffed animals being made on special orders. Don't forget that the cold weather is coming. So, buying hats, scarves, and gloves makes sense now. Plus dog coats! Don't let your puppy get too chilly. 
Here's an example of a hat that someone wanted. This photo and the color of the hat was sent to Janine. Voila! The person got a beautiful hat exactly as requested.
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Add a PinchLynn has picked up the task of offering cooking classes to our recipients. It's not that they don't know how to cook; it's that they really appreciate some creative ways to use what is in their despensas plus some items that are easily and inexpensively purchased in town. Each class is filled, and the students are busy chopping, slicing, grinding the ingredients for their new dishes.
It's also a time that Lynn can share information about healthy kitchen practices and good nutrition. San Juan Cosala has real problems with diabetes and intestinal problems. |
Poco a PocoBecause of the generous donations by Ginny and Dave, the Tex Mex Night profits, and Cleo's donation, we have the funds for the rent and related costs plus supplies and Mexican assistants. We have 20 classes right now and 18 teachers who come to provide instruction. We offer classes six days a week and have students from 6 years old to 75 years of age. Some of our students are just learning English and others are coming to practice the wonderful English they already have. Our Mexican assistants come every day and take attendance, follow up on missing students, help with copying and classroom prep. They also help translate. We are so lucky to have them and to be able to provide a small salary for their efforts.
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A Stitch In TimeWe are starting two more micro businesses. One will be a sewing team (using sewing machines). They will use fabric from some of the donated clothing items to repurpose it into sellable items. The first project will be to make some creative and fun shopping bags to replace the need for plastic ones. Justine Bertram will be the lead for this project.
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This Quarter's Angels!
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So many people do so much for Operation Feed that it is hard to highlight just a few, but this quarter we really need to recognize two people who made the Art Camp work so well. Stan and Darnelle brought us boxes of supplies, and Darnelle found fun and easy projects for the kids to do. Not only did they provide all the supplies needed for the 15 projects, but Darnelle made examples of most of them. Our teachers could just pull out the beaded lizard example and gather the beads and pipe cleaners and off they would go. The kids loved all the really fun activities, and Jere and Carol were ecstatic. The work and funds that Darnelle and Stan provided saved us hours of preparation time and allowed us to have really great projects every day. The extra supplies went to Arci who is offering art classes at her home in Ajijic. Arci has taught summer camp for free here in SJC.
Always angels ... John and Cleo are always at Operation Feed on Thursday by 8:00 a.m. looking marvelous and ready to work. They both donate to our many projects. Ginny and Dave who are making sure we can continue our English classes in the new space. Dave is also a Board member and Ginny is a long-time Egg Lady. And Melody has been a key Egg Lady, is a Board member and oversees the fund raisers for our 1-2 Buckle My Shoe project.
Always angels ... John and Cleo are always at Operation Feed on Thursday by 8:00 a.m. looking marvelous and ready to work. They both donate to our many projects. Ginny and Dave who are making sure we can continue our English classes in the new space. Dave is also a Board member and Ginny is a long-time Egg Lady. And Melody has been a key Egg Lady, is a Board member and oversees the fund raisers for our 1-2 Buckle My Shoe project.
We are all collecting bottle caps, especially our recipients. These go to Rotary which brings them to Guadalajara for the special children's cancer fund.
Our Crochet Team has been very busy making hats, scarves, bottle covers and more. They were at many parties and Christmas events. Now they will start on some new products that are good for any season.
Special thanks to St. Andrews Church in Riberas. They have supported us in so many ways. Each week many parishioners bring a food item that gets added to our despensas. That means about 15 lucky families get something unexpected in their food bag.
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Operation Feed continues to honor its original purpose ... to make sure that the neediest villagers have adequate food. The despensa program has grown to 109 families, serving over 550 people. Agustin and his sons pick up despensa items in Jocotepec twice a month. People work at 8:00 a.m. Thursday mornings packing the rice, beans, soy, and oats bags. Another team comes to Viva Mexico during the week and puts all the items into each family's despensa bag. Each Egg Lady Team comes once a month to box up the eggs. And Nora (one of our recipients) buys, chops, and bags the fresh vegetables twice a month.
Despensa bags include rice, beans, oats, soy, a bottle of cooking oil, eggs, 3 bags of pasta, a bag of powdered milk, tuna or vegetables. Beyond the despensas that are provided, Operation Feed has expanded to serve other needs. We are helping to provide wheelchairs, canes, walkers, portable toilets, and glasses. English classes are offered for free to all villagers. Clothing is provided twice a year. School shoes are given to each family. And small business opportunities are supported. This past year our efforts have been to support our Crochet Team.
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Want to know more about Operation Feed and the work that it performs?
Click on the buttons below to find out more about each project.
Click on the buttons below to find out more about each project.
Every week volunteers donate their time to purchase, prepare, and distribute food packages to 109 families, totaling more than 550 people. This bag of groceries might keep a family from extreme hunger or let that family spend their money on bus fare to get children to school. Whatever way it helps, it makes a huge difference in their survival. The cost for 109 families? About 32,000 pesos a month. That's about 300 pesos a month per family. Check out the home delivery program. 
Following Agustin's lead, Operation Feed is supporting English classes. Agustin believes learning English and taking part in responsibility building programs are keys to improving the family's economics. The classes are for anyone in the village - ages 8 and older.
With the guidance of Janine Kirkland, a group of village women are making items that are useful and beautiful. Hats, rugs, shawls, glass covers to keep bugs out of the wine, scarves, dog coats, and more. All the yarn and beads are donated; all the profits go directly to the women. Making 200 pesos a week can mean so much to our women. Consider hosting Janine and one of the women at a club meeting or party.
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What new and interesting dishes can be made with the items given in the despensa? Lynn Sim has stepped up to the challenge for this year. She has met with the women to learn what they would like to know about using the items in their bag. She has now begun offering cooking classes to small groups and providing them with tasty and healthy recipes.
Helping the women learn to create nutritious meals is a challenge given the facts that they have little money to spend and need to be one pot, open fire, no oven recipes. 
The Egg Ladies Program began with the desire to increase the nutritional content of the food despensas that are handed out each week to Operation Feed families. The women pay for the eggs and then come to Viva Mexico to package them. Depending on the size of the family, they receive either a full dozen or 1/2 dozen eggs. The Egg Ladies also do a number of other special projects for our recipients and have a lot of fun doing them.
Operation Feed works to fill the special needs of our families. Filimon needed a new wheelchair and Lisa made sure she trucked one down from Portland, OR. Many of our clients have vision problems, so between Tom, Buddy, and Laura we are able to provide both prescription and readers. If you are renovating, please let us know. Especially given the cold, our families can use old cabinets, doors, windows, sinks, etc.
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One of the highlights for the people of San Juan Cosalá is the clothing drive. Many of the volunteers at Operation Feed work collecting clothes for the families who receive the weekly food despensas, as well as other families of limited resources in the village of San Juan Cosalá.. In May and November, clothing is made available for these villagers. Clothes and shoes for the children are especially needed -- babies through teenagers.
Bringing clothing back across the border? Here's a letter that you can show if stopped.
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