We received quite a few applications through Health-e Giving this year for a myriad of projects and organizations: feeding kids, building leaders, and encouraging community as we look to inspire generosity. One of the organizations to which we offered a grant wanted to provide nutritious meals for kids attending school in Belize. Read more to find out what the project entails!
The Las Flores Feeding Center in Belize has the goal of feeding kids: 25-50 kids each year. Not all families in the area can afford schooling, so this organization finds sponsors for each of these kids so they can attend school. For many of these kids, their school lunch is their only nutritious meal of the day–and possibly the only meal of the day, period. A team from the organization,The World Race, shops and helps feed the kids.
With our matched grant funds, the Las Flores Feeding Center is also looking into ways to make this feeding program more sustainable in the future. The Center serves the kids chicken, rice, and beans. One organization has gone down and taught the kids at the school how to do chicken farms, as that could help sustainability. Another group has gone down to Belize and taught pottery, bracelet-making, art, and other creative ways to sell goods and make some money.
The Las Flores Feeding Center is also working with Seeds International, trying to find a way to build a school garden that could help provide food and crops for the Feeding Center, while also providing an excellent opportunity for the kids and their parents to work together on the garden. There are also local markets that could provide an excellent chance to earn some money for any surplus food raised from a garden.
The kids are so grateful for the school and the feeding center that they write sweet handwritten cards in appreciation. Check out some of these pictures!
