Communities United in "Action for Food" Drive Vallarta Yacht Club | |
go to original August 22, 2012 |
Each year, September is the month with the most critical need for food. Tourism is at its lowest and after surviving the slow months of May and June, cash reserves of local families are gone. With restaurants closed for most or all of September and hotels at low vacancy, jobs are scarce and people are hungry. That's why we're uniting in the "Action for Food" food drive, all month long.
The Vallarta Yacht Club will be helping hungry families survive this time through a united North Bay effort led by the non-profit organization PEACE.
The "Action for Food" drive is collecting dry food donations September 1-30, 2012. Community members participating in this PEACE program do volunteer service to the community in exchange for food. They clean and separate garbage from fields, plazas, and schools. In return they earn a food package for 10 meals.
Can you help? Food items needed to support the Protectores are: dry beans in bags, dry rice in bags, box milk, pasta noodles, canned tuna, soup bouillon, tomato paste, toilet paper and cooking oil. This food package provides 10 meals with a cost of only 70 pesos (about $5 US).
This Community Pride program helps participants feed their families and develops a sense of responsibility for the community with the dignity of earning rewards instead of receiving charity.
The focus is on elderly, disabled and unemployed persons and single mothers. Community members participating are appropriately called Protectores (Protectors) of the Community.
Joining the VYC in this effort are organizations in the towns of Bucerias, La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, and Punta de Mita.
Five Drop-off locations are collecting dry food donations: the Vallarta Yacht Club in Nuevo Vallarta (next to Paradise Village Marina), The Bucerías Art Walk (Lázaro Cárdenas # 62) in Bucerías, Octopus Garden Restaurant (Coral #6), Philo's Bar and Music Club (Delfin #5)in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, and Casa Campesina (Otilio Montaño, PEACE headquarters).
The ongoing program goals are 400 participants in 4 communities completing 800 hours of community service work, earning a total of 4,000 meals each month. Almost 7,800 kilos of trash are recycled monthly. Communities served by this program are: Higuera Blanca, Corral del Risco, Bucerias, La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, and Emiliano Zapata in Punta de Mita. PEACE is proud to have distributed over 60,000 meals in the 2 years of this program.
PEACE is one of the highlighted organizations in the VYC Community Action Program.
If you are out of the area and want to help the Food Drive, cash donations with tax deductible receipts can be made directly to PEACE, specifically marked for the Work for Food program, by visiting their website donation page. One packet of food for 10 meals only costs 70 pesos (about $5 US).
For more information, please contact the Vallarta Yacht Club.
"Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much"... Helen Keller
Learn about Vallarta Yacht Club
Learn about PEACE Punta de Mita
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From activities like hiking, swimming, bike riding and yoga, to restaurants offering healthy menus, Vallarta-Nayarit is the ideal place to continue - or start - your healthy lifestyle routine.