One Million Peso Challenge

Dear Neighbor,

Now’s the time. COVID is largely behind us and “normalcy” is upon us. Since 2020, FoodBank Lakeside has ensured hunger did not overwhelm our central Mexico community during the pandemic.

The good news: FoodBank Lakeside has supplied thousands of monthly despensas (basic items such as beans, rice, oats, milk, eggs, soap and toilet paper) to more than 1,000 of our poorest residents (including the elderly, severely disabled, families who’ve lost breadwinners, little children) in seven Lakeside communities (Ajijic, San Antonio Tlayacapan, Riberas, Chapala, Santa Cruz, San Nicolás and San Pedro).

The bad news: we’re perilously close to running out of money. In the coming months, we will scramble to afford the food we promised. We fear we will have to turn down a grandma or a person with a disability or a child. The consequences are unthinkable.

This leads to this extraordinary plea. We ask you to step up, to recognize what we have learned first-hand: there are many great local causes to financially support – the arts, education, seniors, throughout our communities – but it all starts with erasing hunger.

Students, and others – young and old – cannot learn and prosper without enough food in their bellies. Despensas also mean families can free up scarce money to maintain housing, keep the power on, buy cooking gas and purchase educational materials.

Please consider supporting FoodBank Lakeside’s new One Million Peso Challenge. During the next 100 days (until New Year’s Eve), we seek new supporters and extra funding from current supporters. We hope you will consider raising/donating more pesos through Dec. 31 – but know that any and all monetary donations, large or small, are welcome. Every peso or dollar helps.

We’ve gotten this far thanks to our much-appreciated, current supporters. But now, FoodBank Lakeside needs to attain firmer financial ground in 2023. This would be a monumental achievement, led by Americans and Canadians to help our local neighbors meet their most basic, vital need for food.

Please consider:

• FoodBank Lakeside is all volunteers, so 95 percent of all FoodBank donations go to feed families.

• Our business model has no facility or headcount costs. We don’t have an office or a warehouse. We work from home to aid our neighbors.

• Our Leadership team is 100 percent supportive and committed to the One Million Peso Challenge.

• We rely on a dedicated cadre of Mexican volunteers, who are our eyes and ears in their respective Lakeside communities. We ensure those in need get despensas over those no longer in need. Each client is routinely reevaluated.

• FoodBank-supported Kids Kitchen provides healthy lunches five days a week to 700 children at risk of severe malnutrition and kidney disease. FoodBank Lakeside also provides special despensas to families in nearby indigenous villages who suffer from advanced kidney disease.

• We even deliver bags of dog and cat food via Pet Food Bank Lakeside, to families whose pooches and felines would otherwise go hungry or beg food that humans need.

Just $18 USD or $23 CAD or $370 MXN can help feed a family of four for a month. If we meet this challenge, the FoodBank can start 2023 with some reserves for essential programs.

FoodBank Lakeside is recognized by the Foundation for Lake Chapala Charities, a 501(c)3 organization, allowing U.S. donors to make year-end, tax-deductible donations and receive tax receipts.

Learn more. Find us on Facebook at @FoodBankLakeside. Or at www.foodbanklakeside.org. Please consider donating on this Go Fund me page and sharing the page link so friends everywhere can donate.

I hope you’ll help better fund this essential, local effort meeting a dire need. Please don’t put it off. Now’s the time.

Thank you for your consideration,

Steve Taylor, One Million Peso Challenge