By Jillian Severinski | Project Intern
If you’re a typical student in the highlands of Guatemala, it’s normal to walk to school hungry in the mornings. Given what most parents make as day laborers on coffee farms, the money for three full meals a day just isn’t there. For this reason, Pueblo a Pueblo’s School Nutrition project shifted this year to serve breakfast instead of lunch at three out of the five schools where we provide school meals; meaning that over 800 students will get breakfast every day they are in school.
The impact has been immediate. Students are happier and teachers have noticed an improvement in student concentration and attendance!
Our breakfast program follows the same format as the school lunch program and in addition to the basic ingredients purchased through your donations, organic school gardens provide supplementary fruits and vegetables that are incorporated into the meals.
The schools contribute their share by providing firewood for the stoves as well as the kitchenware needed to prepare the large quantities of food. When possible, the school provides a modest wage for a cook. Otherwise the school collaborates with local mothers who volunteer to prepare the meals as early as 5am to make sure breakfast is ready by 10am. Their dedication is impressive!
We look forward to serving breakfast in all five schools that we work with in 2015. We also plan to provide more hands-on training for school cooks and to improve the nutritional content of school meals. Stay tuned for more updates as events unfold!
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