Some of the food packed by volunteers last June in the Million Meal Event is being distributed to the poorest families in Tijuana and elsewhere in Baja California.
Meanwhile, the deacons of the San Diego Diocese are organizing this year’s charitable event, which will be held June 10 and 11 once more at Cathedral Catholic High School.
Their goal is to build on the successful inaugural event. They have set their sights on surpassing the more than 1 million meals they packed in 2022, and to raising more than $250,000, the amount needed to make that a reality.
The nutritious meals packed last June, in partnership with the nonprofit organization Kids Around the World, were distributed to children and families living in extreme poverty in Zambia, the Philippines and Mexico.
In Mexico, the painstaking inspection process the federal government required took months to complete to be able to bring the meal packets into the country, said Guillermo Gomez, the exporter who facilitated the transportation of two trailers’ worth of food packets.
The meals finally started arriving in late October at Casa de los Pobres, an organization operated by the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady, Queen of Peace that serves those living in extreme poverty in Tijuana.
Sister Armida Andrade, who manages the Casa, said in a phone interview that the food is gradually being distributed in a number of ways.
The house hands out the meal packets every other Thursday to the families that converge in their facility for a variety of services, arriving by foot and bus.
Two sisters go out several times a month to far-flung neighborhoods where families live in improvised housing, struggling to survive day to day. The delay in receiving the meal packets has complicated that task.
“The rain makes it impossible for us to take our vehicles to these colonias,” said Sister Andrade. “The roads turn into mud that carries nails, screws and other debris that make it hard to drive there. We have to wait until they dry out.”
Families converge on the Casa’s trucks, from where the sisters distribute boxes of the meals to the colonia’s residents, mostly women and children.
The sisters also give some of the packets to Haitian refugees who have set up tents in a Tijuana lot. They are awaiting an opportunity to apply for asylum in the U.S. The 120 or so men, women and children live in tough outdoor conditions, made all the more punishing as the temperatures drop in the winter. She said the sisters are allowing a newborn baby and his mother and father to live temporarily in their facility to keep them safe and warm.
Casa de los Pobres, a nonprofit organization, seeks donations to help the poorest families in Tijuana. Checks and money orders may be sent to P.O. Box 432256, San Ysidro, CA 92143-2256. For more information, visit casadelospobresusa.com.
Save the Date
The deacons of the San Diego Diocese will hold the Million Meal Event on June 10 and 11 at Cathedral Catholic High School. They will seek more than 3,000 volunteers and donations to hold this second-annual packing event to provide nutritious food meals for impoverished children across the border and around the world. For more information, visit sdcatholic.org/millionmeal2023.
Full story at The Southern Cross.
I know that the bureaucratic slowdown mentioned in the articles sounds “inefficient” to many who haven’t dealt with foreign governments when trying to do good for people, but do not let that deter anyone from responding. the flow has started.I once was involved in getting supplies to Haiti and found that much of what my group had been flying in still remained on the runways undistributed because venal airport and customs officials felt they had not been given the’ respect’ of enough bribes(everyone doing missionary supply there knows about this “tax”) The Doc flying things in, a Haitian himself , with his own DC-5 knew his country( though now working in Florida) asked us to stop further supply donations(mostly medical) because they refused to let him even unload what he flew down….
Why not just give to American charities so you know foreign inefficiency and corruption won’t be in play? Inefficiency and corruption are the two primary reasons those poor countries are poor in the first place. Buying into the corrupt system doesn’t help the situation. And America is becoming inefficient and corrupt, which will increase poverty.
this is an american charity. All of the Haiti aid flown in from american charities to help in the incredible earthquake sat on the ground for years because they did not come up with enough bribes at the airport runway. american charities also have to go through airports. Last I heard, much was still on the ground or squirreled off by gangs running Haiti.
Benefactors should demand their money back. The CEO of the charity should be fired. Keep the donations in America where they will actually do good instead of being squandered. This corrupt charity is as inefficient as government.
May God bless this effort. Thank you for sharing this story.