2025 Newsletters

December 2025

When you meet Guillermina, her gentle smile and quiet strength say it all. A lifelong caregiver and community builder, she has spent decades dedicating herself to feeding, nurturing, and uplifting others.

November 2025

What began as a fun night out at Único Restaurant — music, margaritas, and Mediterranean food — became a reminder that joy shared in one room can nourish another home.

October 2025

After too many years of struggle, misfortune and searching for contentment, Cala Villegas has found reward and ease delivering lunches for Foodbank Lakeside’s partner organization, El Proyecto. He spends every weekday in Ajijic and West Ajijic delivering over 1,000 homestyle lunches to 50+ families monthly. Although Carlos is his birth name, and he’s known as Carlos by most at Foodbank Lakeside, he asked early on during our talk that he be called by the nickname given him in his youth, Cala.

September 2025

Neighbors helping neighbors is a core goal of FoodBank Lakeside. It has it’s roots in the concept of mutual aid. Maybe that’s a term you’ve heard but don’t have a full understanding of or maybe you’re on old hand in the world of mutual aid. If you’re starting from only a vague idea at best, then let’s talk about what mutual aid is and how it differs from charity.

August 2025

Food insecurity is a social and household level economic condition of limited or uncertain access to food. While it certainly isn’t limited to the Lakeside area, we all know it’s a problem here. That’s what we are all working on together to solve. “We” includes volunteers, supporters, people who spread the word, and people who care enough to open the newsletter and learn more about FoodBank Lakeside’s mission. In short, you are a big part of that “we.”

July 2025

A generous donor has offered FoodBank Lakeside a $10,000 USD challenge grant at a critical time for fundraising. Every dollar or peso you donate will go toward providing food for children and people who are seriously ill, disabled, or unable to put food on their tables. We need to raise 200,000 pesos within thirty days, especially through monthly commitments that are vital for ongoing food support. Please click here to visit our donation page as soon as possible.

June 2025

Every weekday afternoon, volunteers from FoodBank Lakeside take to the streets of Ajijic and San Antonio Tlayacapan—not with fanfare, but with purpose. Their mission is simple, yet profound: deliver hot, nutritious meals to neighbors in need. Two of these dedicated drivers, Kriss and Dennis, shared what it’s like to be part of a program that delivers more than just food—it delivers dignity, care, and community connection.

Over the past five years, we’ve had the honor of witnessing incredible stories of strength, resilience, and hope from individuals and families who have faced overwhelming challenges. In this special edition, we’re revisiting some of those powerful stories—testimonies that reflect not only the determination of those who have persevered through food insecurity, but also the profound impact of our generous donors.

Five years ago, in the spring of 2020, FoodBank Lakeside was born out of an urgent need. The COVID-19 pandemic had upended lives, leaving many families struggling to put food on the table. What started as a crisis response quickly grew into something much bigger -a community-driven effort to ensure no one in our area goes hungry.

In 2020 FoodBank Lakeside joined thousands of other food banks, non-profits and NGOs fighting hunger. So far on a local level they have been successful. Here is some history and statistics about the scope of this problem from a global, Mexican and local perspective and why the existence of FoodBank Lakeside is so valuable to our community.

When you make a charitable donation, it is important to be confident that your money is being used to help those the charity serves. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. It is not uncommon for charities to spend forty to sixty percent of financial contributions on administration, fund raising, and promotional costs! When you support Foodbank Lakeside every penny or peso donated is conscientiously stewarded. Foodbank Lakeside takes great pride in assuring that ninety-five percent of all donations provide meals and essentials for the most vulnerable members of our Chapala communities.

This report highlights the milestones we achieved and the partnerships that made it all possible. We also take a candid look at the challenges we faced and the work that remains to be done.

Serving Lake Chapala Communities of Jalisco Mexico