No child in San Miguel shall know the pain of hunger.
That’s the straightforward goal of one of San Miguel de Allende’s oldest and most successful non-governmental organizations. Feed the Hungry San Miguel started in 1984 with a single small, kitchen at St. Paul’s Anglican Church and is now feeding thousands of needy San Miguel residents of all ages. Typically, hot meals are provided for more than 4,000 children in Feed the Hungry’s 36 school kitchens every school day. Food is also provided to seven charities that serve orphans, children with disabilities, and senior citizens.
MESSAGE FROM AL KOCOUREK, PRESIDENT OF FEED THE HUNGRY SAN MIGUEL – March 2022
Two years ago, a pandemic upended everything, and Feed the Hungry launched the biggest food relief effort ever conducted in San Miguel de Allende. Our 36 school kitchens were forced to close, but we couldn’t just let the children go hungry. We responded by revamping our operations to feed entire families. Since March 2020, the Feed the Families emergency response program has distributed enough food to produce 14 million meals and benefited an estimated 20,000 people. This immense undertaking has helped desperate families avoid starvation due to financial turmoil.
At long last, our school kitchens are reopening, allowing us to resume our traditional school meals program. And our Early Childhood Nutrition program is now operating in 10 communities, providing children not yet of school age with the food that they need during this critical growth and development period, because poor nutrition in a child’s early years can manifest itself in a myriad of health and cognitive disorders.
We are happy to see children once again enjoying our hot school meals, and find that we can begin to scale back the Feed the Families program. But our expanded outreach during the pandemic revealed to us the dire conditions in many more communities than we typically visit. We became more inspired than ever to find ways to help.
As a result, we are piloting a new Extended Alimentation program in three communities. Our nutritionists will work closely with specific families that we have identified as severely malnourished and provide food and education tailored to their circumstances. Health assessments will be frequently conducted and recorded to gauge the effects of the program. Later in the year, we hope to have the metrics and the funding to expand it to more beneficiaries.
In addition, we are aware of the importance of not only food, but also of clean water and adequate hydration for health. We know that some communities have little to no water available locally, while others have water that is contaminated. Water testing is currently being conducted in all of our school kitchens, and various solutions are being researched.
We have always believed that the future of Mexico depends on the vitality of its children. Therefore, our mission is to provide the nutrition that they need to grow and to thrive, and to educate their families on good eating habits to ensure the sustainability of our programs.
I thank you for your generosity and support of our mission.
Click HERE to view videos of Feed the Hungry San Miguel in action.
