By Bibi la Luz Gonzalez | Founder
Hello hello dear Wa'ik Community on GlobalGiving!
We are incredibly grateful for all your support throughout all of these years! Today as we write this report, we are very near to our goal, with only USD 2,574 to go!
As our previous reported included the Xmas Special'25, in this report, we are briefly going to mention it, and we will focus on the other activities we have done from October 2025 until today. Ready, set, gooooaaal!!::::
We participated in Shark Tank Guatemala season 2, where there were more than 1,000 applications! After a series of auditions, pitching, and casting, and months-long coaching and prepration provided by Cacao Capital, we recorded our pitch in Shark Tank as part of the 40 finalists. Although we are a non-profit, we explored ways in which investors could see a new vision of social impact investment by how we've been operating in somewhat of a hybrid model. We did our best, and got the support of two Sharks! A donation of $5,000 thanks to Alida, and a proposal for catalytic capital by Hugo. We are incredibly grateful to all the team of Guatemala.com, Fundación BI, Cacao Capital, the Sharks, Sony Pictures, and especially Celeste who designed and prepared the set with our well known fruits and veggies. There you could see the images of all of those participants in the Village Concepción Pinula! Watch our pitch here!
During September/October, Bibi dove into a profound research on food security, culture and scientific data with the article published in Quorum. A MUST read here to make sense of it all, uniting multiple sources into one, as well as an extremelly well synthesis and essay of the UN Food Systems Summit Stocktake, UNICEF Reports, and the EAT Lancet Report. One of the best pieces written!
We were invited to participate as an Expert in the Estado de implementación de políticas públicas orientadas en la creación de entornos alimentarios saludables para la prevención de la malnutrición infantial en Guatemala (Índice Food-EPI) organized by INCAP and UNICEF. With that, we dedicated time, effort and knowledge in the 13 components of the study, as well as participated in meetings that were held (in-person and hybrid) throughout February - April 2026. As of now, the report is being finished, and will be handed over to the Government of Guatemala for its suggested implementation.
The Salazón Festival was brough in November 2025 organized by Sal at Miettes, supporting Wa'ik! The two-day festival brought 23 restaurants from eight countries (including those in the LATAM 50 Best Restaurants list): Sublime, Mercado 24, Diacá, El Xolo, Ana Cocina Local, La Tapa del Coco, Rabo de Pez, Ueya, Umi, Miettes, Sal, Casa Fuego, Isolina, Gula, Brio Bakery, La Clac, Toi Doi, Compartir, Minerva, Utz Apetit, El Pulté Golf, Terra Nostra, Dantés. Thank you to Ñejitos for the image of the event. We fundraised from Sal less than $1,000, as well as from Miettes, coming to a total of aprox $1,500-$2,000, still pending to being transfered to Wa'ik (expected by August 2026). We thank everyone who came along, and also supported our cause!
We attended the invitation-only event by EAT Stockholm Food Forum in Sweden during September-October 2025, for the launch of the EAT-Lancet Report. It was spectacular, you can read more on my take about it here and here. It was outstading!!!
It was the first time ever that the LATAM 50Best Restaurants was held in Central America, and of course in Guatemala! We participates with Bibi for being part of the inaugural class of the 50 Best's 50 Next (the only Guatemalan that year). It was a joy to be accompanied by so many board members in this historic event, and seeing our friends and partners restaurants and chefs bright so wonderfully in this ceremony and week-long event. The next one will be later on this year in Guatemala as well !
We did a special report on this EXTRAORDINARY activity, so please check out our XIV report (the preivous one). With thousands of people coming along, with kids and parents for our Christmas Special!
Bibi undertook a Diploma and Certification from the Universidad Andrés Bello (Chile) and 3Vectores (Uruguay) from May-December 2025, where here group 3 with Agustina, Romi, Felipe, y Rainier build the business Mamoru, health and smart pet food to obtain the first half of the diploma. Then, the second part, Bibi conducted two workshops on Circular Design Thinking in Yokohama, Japan in October'25, wtih the hispanic community. It was outstanding, thank you for coming Aka, Angelica, Araceli, Danelle, Estrella, Kumeyi y Laura! Gracias a todo el equipo a cargo del Diplomado!!
We welcome the new members of the Board of Directors for the next two years: Bibi, Sofía, Celeste, Marta, Jocelyn, Brenda, Sofi, Raquel, Fernando, Guillermo and Peter. Thank you for embarking in this Wa'ik journey!
We were very say to learn about the passing of Don Mayron. It was through him that we partnered together with the village of Concepción Pinula to bring fruits and veggies during COVID in 2020. He supported for some years, where his family continues as the Wa'ik team in the village. Thank you and rest in peace.
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