A Call for Volunteers and Donations From Vallarta Food Bank Francie Nguyen - Vallarta Food Bank
go to original June 17, 2022

Vallarta Food Bank (Brazils on Tour)

Rainy season has arrived in Puerto Vallarta, and that means the food bank will only get busier. With fewer opportunities for work during the tourism off-season, the soup kitchen lines get longer, and more disaster relief supplies will be needed. Ironically, the off-season also means that all the winter volunteers will have gone back to their homes, so we’ll be short-staffed as well. If anyone is available to volunteer in the summertime, please sign up on our website. We need you.

Since we were recognized as an official nonprofit foundation in Mexico, we’re required to attend many workshops and meetings for nonprofits. That means Frankie, one of our founders, is extremely busy attending these events. This week Frankie and Jimmy headed to Guadalajara to attend a huge meeting with the big food bank there, along with many other foundations. It’s been a huge learning curve for all of us to meet all the official requirements, including changing our website URL to vallartafoodbank.org and getting our official bank account. If you live in Mexico, you understand how difficult getting a bank account can be!

To date, we’ve served over 160,000 hot meals and distributed over 100,000 despensas (food bags). That’s a huge accomplishment for us and our volunteers. On top of serving food, we also cover natural disaster relief services, medical assistance, education and vocational courses, free drinking water dispensers, and job assistance.

Our displaced families also have access to free shower and laundry facilities. The weekly bazaar is a great way for everyone to receive free clothing, shoes, and household items.

Food Pantry Market

Our next project that we’re very excited about is creating a food pantry market. Our idea is to have a market where the participants could choose among food that’s locally sourced and accessible in a dignified manner.

We’re hoping to offer the participants fresh vegetables, fruits, grains, eggs, meat, pasta, canned food, and some cleaning supplies. To stock the market, we’re planning to do donation drives outside of La Comer, Costco, and Walmart once a month. We can also accept donations at our food bank from Monday-Friday 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m.

This service allows our families to get what they really need and not have to worry about their next meals. All participants will be interviewed and given points to purchase the food. More details to come.

Monthly Donations

Monthly donors play a critical role in helping fight hunger in Puerto Vallarta. Consistent monthly donations allow us to budget for hot meals at the soup kitchen and despensas to-go while also expanding educational resources, community programming and employment opportunities to those that need it most. When we can better forecast our monthly budget, each dollar and peso can nearly double in value.

Put simply, monthly donations act as the backbone to our entire operation.

Just $10 USD ensures a despensa is sent every month to a local family, providing food security to neighboring households. Being able to count on that $10 ensures our core mission — feeding the beautiful community of Puerto Vallarta — continues to be met as we increase access to other basic needs such as hygiene, clothing, baby supplies, legal aid, self-defense, medicine, and more.

Interested in making a monthly donation? It’s easy on our website here.

When you sign up to be a member of our Monthly Giving Circle, you’ll join a group of dedicated supporters who are making a lasting commitment to end hunger in our community.

Monthly Giving Circle Membership Benefits:

  • Special annual event for Monthly Giving Circle members
  • Online recognition as a loyal supporter (optional)
  • Hassle-free, automatic monthly donations
  • Flexibility to change or suspend your monthly gift at any time
  • Exclusive volunteer opportunities like our annual Christmas dinner and toy drive for the families

We just want to say THANK YOU in the biggest way to all of you. You donated, volunteered, and shared our messages. We are touched and humbled by the outpouring support from so many. This community is so uniquely amazing and generous. We are so lucky to be a part of this beautiful place. Together, we are doing great things!

With gratitude, from all of us at Vallarta Food Bank.

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