Train Brazilians in Sustainable Culinary Arts

Hello GlobalGiving supporters!

We hope that you are safe wherever you are. The Covid-19 pandemic unfortunately remains a reality in Brazil, but with your support, the Community Mental Health Movement has been able to push forward and support folks in need.

We want to spend this update sharing one of the adaptations we’ve made in light of the pandemic. Specifically, we want to share with you more details on how we have mobilized the Sustainable Culinary School to combat hunger in the outskirts of the major metropolitan city of Fortaleza.

We’ve named this mobilization Nourishing the Body and Soul and the main activity is distributing free, hot meals to those in need while providing therapy and purpose to the women who prepare the meals.

The Community Mental Health Movement has trained 15 women to prepare these hot meals on a daily basis, which are then distributed for free. At the beginning of the pandemic, many of these women were unemployed and spending their days at home in isolation and fear. We brought them into our kitchen, giving them hope and a sense of purpose through this dark time. What a sense of accomplishment to know that you can create goodness with your own hands! The women are able to help others and themselves, as they are able to take the food home to their families as well. These women both give and receive, which is the most sustainable and productive form of social justice work. These women know that they are part of the solution and are part of a community, rather than isolated and passive recipients of aid that they had no say in.

In the past four months, we have distributed approximately 12,000 meals. In addition to these meals, we have also distributed donations we have received, in the form of fruits, vegetables, rice, oil, basic household products, and chicken.

Regiane is a former student of the Sustainable Culinary School and one of the women who has stepped up to help prepare these meals that are so needed during this pandemic. She lives in the Bom Jardim neighborhood of Fortaleza, where the Community Mental Health Movement is headquartered. She shares:

Being in the kitchen preparing these meals is a form of therapy for me. It helps me psychologically and I love to help my neighborhood, my community. I’m really happy to be a part of this.

The Community Mental Health Movement has adopted a few hashtags to reflect how we’ve approached this time:

#vaipassar - #thiswillpass

#omovimentonaopara - #themovementdoesn’tstop

With your help, we can continue to combat hunger and despair. Thank you for helping keep us going – because the Movement doesn’t stop!

Muito obrigada (thank you) to all of our supporters who make this work possible,

Natasha (Development Volunteer)

Mitakuye Oyasin
Îandé Memé Maranongara
Somos Todos Parentes
We Are All Related

Links:

• The Community Mental Health Movement website