BREAKFAST PROGRAM
The idea started in 1998 when the co-founders of the original organization “Feed the Children – Vallarta” noticed that the families living inside the city dump were not sending their children to school. The children were helping their parents pick through the garbage to find anything of value. When asked why, the mothers complained that they did not have clothing, shoes, supplies or a shower so they couldn´t send their kids to school. After taking care of these needs and getting most of these children to school, the teachers at the local kindergarten said that another problem was that these children were coming to school without breakfast and by 10 am they were hungry, their attention was on their stomachs not the teacher. So it was decided to supply a breakfast to the 30 students in the Magisterio kindergarten.
This program was a great success with the teachers reporting that after a breakfast the students were much more focused, had better concentration and attention and were learning more. As a result it was decided to expand the breakfast program to include the primary school in Magesterio with its 300 students. Again we had the same results with the students learning more with much improved behavior and grades.
Over the years we have continued to expand the program and today we feed breakfast
to 1,500 students at 8 schools (12 shifts) surrounding the dump. According
to the Principals and teachers, the direct results of our programs are; better
attendance (36% increase), better concentration and better grades.
Our goal is to affect the 70% of the children who do not complete grade 6;
to keep them in school through middle school and high school.
“HOT
MEALS” PROGRAM
Perdon y Amistad started helping the Children living in the Dump in 1995. Their main emphasis was to feed hot meals to the children in the afternoons and to ensure that they received some help with clothing, shoes and other necessities. They would distribute these items to the children and their families along with food staples to help feed the families during the week. When Perdon y Amistad began helping the Children of the Dump in 1998, the hot meals program was continued and expanded.
Today, we are feeding hot meals to 500 children each day around the dump in Puerto Vallarta and in Bucerias, Nayarit. The food is donated by restaurants, hotels and businesses around the area, supplemented by food from the Children of the Dump kitchen.
